6 Mar
2013
6 Mar
'13
12:19 p.m.
On Wed, 6 Mar 2013, Fred Cisin wrote:
If flat spiral, we can estimate the length by PI times
the
arithmetic mean of the diameter (add the innermost, outermost,
and appropriate intermediates and divide by number of turns)
ERROR! (in my logorrheic babbling)
That should be PI times the arithmetic mean of the diameter times the
number of turns.
(PI * number of turns times ((innermost+outermost diameters)/2))
(or PI * number of turns times (innermost RADIUS + outermost RADIUS))
Would attempting to look up the answer in Wikipedia increase or
decrease the number of errors? Would it strengthen the strange
belief that "doing the math" is "TOO HARD"?
Optional Edison method: wrap a string following the scale and then
measure the string. (Apple's ad saying that "Edison could have
simulated, instead of trying different filaments", was antithetical
to the man's philosophy and style)