16 Dec
1998
16 Dec
'98
4:45 p.m.
On Thu, 17 Dec 1998, Ward Donald Griffiths III wrote:
silly parade on TV. In fact, I took my first
programming course to
learn to work out engineering questions on the rigid airship designs
that I'm still playing with, it was pure coincidence that it was a
prerequisite or concurrent requirement for the calculus sequence I
also started that quarter (I was a mathematics major, after all).
Interesting. My first paying programming contract was to do hot-air
balloon structural analysis on an Apple ][. A balloon maker in Rancho
Sante Fe (just north of San Diego) had to get FAA certification for new
designs, so they paid some college kid to write a program that proved
their designs were safe (luckily, I was studying continuum mechanics at
the time).
I was able to generate some pretty pictures and some numbers that looked
right to me, and the FAA bought it, but there was no way I was going up in
one of those things!
-- Doug