Elaine Parrish wrote:
> Tee hee hee. I'm not real comfy with geometry. I got some better at it
> while I was playing pool. I improved my English, too! hehe
>
> My dad taught me about about moving the water through pipe while we were
> doing a plumbing job. He showed it to me on a piece of paper. He drew two
> circles - one small, one larger - this was not to scale. The small circle
> represented the 1" pipe and the larger represented the 2" pipe.
>
> In the larger circle, draw a horizontal line through the center. It would
> seem that there'd be 1 inch on top and 1" on bottom to = 2 inches. But it
> is not. It is just like slicing an orange in half. There is still as much
> orange on the surface as there was to begin with. From
> the Horizontal line to the top is 2" (one inch high and 2" long 1X2=2" and
> from the Horizontal line to the bottom is 2".
>
> Draw a vertical line through the center intersecting like cross hairs.
> Now there are four equal sections, each 1" (1" high and 1"long = 1 x 1 =
> 1"). So, it takes 4 1" pipes to move as much water as 1 2" pipe.
>
> If it hadn't been for my dad, I never would have gotten through high
> school or college algebra.<g> My dad used a slide rule. He'd take my math
> problems and work them on the slide rule. Then He would explain the
> problem to me and I would work it by hand (this was before calculators. We
> always worked by hand) until I got the right answer. But instead of using
> those big long formulas, I did some simple math and came out with the
> correct answer. It used to drive my teachers nuts. <g>
>
> Elaine, too

That's a good explanation. I can see even though it's well done by you
I still had to stop for a moment to see what you were getting at. Not
as simple reading as a good anecdote. So when I tried a formula, that
probably is slowing things down. But okay, you fit 4 x 1" in a
cross-section of a 2" pipe. That has a good feel to the explanation.

Slide rule? I am trying to recall the last time I even saw one. I used
to have a real one, K&E? They were kind of neat. I could do simple
stuff on it.

About driving your teachers nuts. I recall in high school, I used to
stare out the window. But every time I got called on in trigonometry
class, I came up with the answer. I don't even know how I could do that
since sine, cosine and tangents were tedious. But if you can simplify
problems, that's good - a lot of difficult problems are really simple,
like e = mc(squared) tee hee. Reminds me of that physicist who had
humorous yet serious books, 'Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!'
(Adventures of a Curious Character): Richard P. Feynman. He always was
simplifying problems so he could get the answers in his head.