Funny, back in tenth grade when I was learning how to prove triangles congruent and what not, I swore up and down that I would never use it. The other day when building some benchwork, I was forced to eat my words. See, three boards formed a perfect right triangle. I knew how long the two legs had to be but not the hypotenuse. I actually tried using Pathagarian theorem to try to get the length. Other than getting a long repeating decimal, it worked.
How many of you guys have employed your high school geometry in layout building?
Like Bob and Rich, I use all that stuff. When building something to get a perfect 90 degrees angle i use an old carpenter trick. That is the 3-4-5 or multiple of. One leg would be 3 feet or meters the other leg would be 4 feet or meters and the hypotenuse would be 5 feet or meters.
I use trig quite a bit in layout planning and construction.
Fer example, I wanted to build a couple of 22 1/2 degree modules. So I used it figure the various lengths of the sides. And, I suppose I used a bit of geometry when picking out the cut angles.
And then there’s that pi-d stuff. Handy for figuring how much flex track to buy.
It might depend on which high school you attended, and who was there with you.
Some high schools are notable for high dropout rates, and their students seem to major in underage drinking and do-it-yourself sex education. Other schools can only be entered by competitive examination, fill their classrooms with geeks and nerds, transfer their ‘dropouts’ to the easier ‘district’ schools and pride themselves on how many megabucks worth of merit scholarships they win.
The first school’s students might accidentally acquire some ‘book smarts’ - maybe even enough to graduate. If they go to college, the first course their counselor recommends is Bonehead English. Then they major in something nice and cuddly - and totally math-free.
The second school’s graduates (about 97.5% of the original class) don’t need Bonehead English, or College Algebra (took that in the 10th grade) or any other ‘qualify for college’ courses. They dive right into marine engineering, or pre-med, or nuclear physics - and pull 3.5 or better in every course. A few decades later, some of them earn Nobel Prizes.
So, do I use what I learned at the Bronx High School of Science when designing my railroad? YOUBETCHUM!!!
Chuck (Proud Science alumnus modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - when not writing about the Confederation Universe ca. 3725)
Algebra - all the time, both in figuring things for the layout and calculating things for the electronic side
History, geography - yup, all of that.
I don’t know that anyone ever TAUGHT me practical applications of these things, I saw them for myself as I found myself using a concept I previously learned while working on something.
Also other things, like woodworking, learned basics from my Dad when I was a kid, also took lots of shop in junior and senior high, I was the oddball in high school woodshop, being otherwise in a college prep/honors track because by that time I knew I wanted to go to college for electrical engineering, but I also enjoyed woodworking, so I took wood shop. Also had drafting, which came in handy at my first job out of college where I was sent to CAD school to be the support person for the actual draftsmen who until then only ever did pencil and paper drafting. Drafting with tools like triangels, t-squares, and compasses is, in fact, the only way I can actual draw anything, I have not one artistic bone in my body, but I can make a technical drawing.
I don;t seem to do much calculus on a practical basis, and I think the last time I did a Fourrier transform was in said math course in college.
It’s surprising where some of that post basic education pops it’s head up.
I was working on a college project (back in the dark ages) and my father-in-law asked how I’d learned to use a compass and some other drawing tools I was using to design a building. He was a carpenter/contractor with HS only. Very good at what he did and knew what he needed, because he’d done it many times a live and learn education. I had to think back, it was a 7th grade introductory coarse in mechanical drawing.
Many times I’ve found myself doing or trying to remember some missing step on a how-to-do project. All go back to school coarses, Must be someone back then was smart enough to know we’d use all that useless stuff at some point in our lives.
I like telling the young folks behind the till at the checkout what change I should get before they finish entering the amount tendered. They look amazed. And that ain’t no colludge maths.
I never do trig, sometimes algebra, sometimes simple geometry. Usually I defer to my trains when learning what their limits are. They don’t mind pointing out my ‘design’ flaws. [8-|]
Mr. Antoine would be unhappy with me (as he was when I watched the gym kids pay soccer beyond the window) but I have had limited use for Middle Euopean History, which has had little practical application on my RR (and elsewhere, except the obvious conclusion that people keep going to war over something, so mankind is about as clueless as in the Dark Ages). If I had a multiple choice test, I might be able to pick the length of the Hundred Years War. But, I digress…
Plane geometry, which I really enjoyed, came in handy several times on designing and building the layout, but I forget the examples. I think my teacher’s name was Mr. Euclid. Then there was trig, and I sorta forget the difference. Calculus I remember quite painfully from college, and I can assure you one could build the transcontinental railroad without it.
Not only on my layout but I built my own inground pool a few years ago and used a 6 foot, 8 foot and 10 foot board to square up the corners. works every time!. And also, don’t forget the simple version of radius and circumference ratios when working on circular construction (Turntable pit walls and rails). My high school math teacher was great at applying math/geometry to everyday situations; back in 1957-59, before computers. I too like to ‘play’ with cashiers when figuring out change before they even enter it in their register. But, I have to admit, math came easy to me so I don’t blame others when they have a little more of a challenge working some things out.
Like most others, I probably use knowledge from most of my high school courses in some way or another. Geometry and Mechanical Drawing are essential in layout planning and construction. I still do mechanical drawing the old-fashioned way, partly because I’m still not very computer savvy, and partly because there is a special satisfaction that comes from the tactile experience of doing it the old fashioned way. The hopbby is supposed to be for fun, and I don’t enjoy satisfying the exacting needs of a computer. I’m just not very facile with the language the computer speaks. I suppose I could (and probably should) learn to do it with a computer program, but I fear I’d lose something in the process.
English skills (i.e., organizing thoughts and communicating them) come in handy everywhere. I do research and writing for my RR’s historical society magazine, and the information has to be communicated clearly or it’s confusing and ultimately worthless. For my writing skills, I have to thank Brother Liguori and Brother Harold (both C.S.C., the same folks who brought you Notre Dame), as well as Mr. Schmidt and David P. Morgan. Now and then, the influence of Lucius Beebe rears its ugly head, but I try to keep those impulses under fairly strict control.
Mr. Ungar, my World History teacher, is probably gone from this planet now; but I would wager that he’s very disappointed to know I don’t remember much about the Goths, Visigoths, the Mongol Horde, and all their ilk. You see, I don’t recall their ever building a railroad.