You used these [2 or 3 of them] to track your rockets Apogee
You might be a child in the 70s if:
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NTP2
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They made you do trig? Isn’t that a bit advanced for there average audience?
Not back then... I finally upgraded to a Reverse Polish Notation scientific calculator instead of the paper calculators.
dr wogz
Fly caster
should be standard high school math..
maybe it was in the 70's, now replaced with compassion & cuddle classes in the 2020's..
We had some air cadets / air guard kids come to a launch. they set up 3 'cells' each about 100' away from the launch platform, and then each launched their Alpha III. Each 'cell' had this angle thing, and they each had to calculate the altitude of their launch.. So, still applies, and this shows how to apply the math to solve a problem / get a result..
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People were different in the 70s. Model rocketeers were willing to take on math challenges, unlike many kids to day. If you presented a math challenge to many of today's youth, they'd become TRIG-gered!
Regardless of where math landed in the 70's vs now, I don't think anybody actually had to do trig calculations with that device. Sure looks like you're comparing readings to a chart/analog computer to get the resulting altitude.
People were different in the 70s. Model rocketeers were willing to take on math challenges, unlike many kids to day. If you presented a math challenge to many of today's youth, they'd become TRIG-gered!
Much of the rocket kids did advanced math because of the rockets, including the competition crowd. I flew competition in 74/75 and some later in 2004/5/6
Advanced methods of altitude prediction got me into calculators and computers.
NTP2
Well-Known Member
It’s available, I all thought it’s renamed as pre calc. But it’s not a requirement so I imagine the classroom is not very full. (You can stop after algebra)
If you ever used one of these.
I was a Freshman when I started using the Altitude track Trig. I was in Prep school at the time and the Math teacher showed us how to use the computer terminal they had for after school work.
This was a big part of how they could justify model rocketry as educational. Of course, we still say that, and it still is, but it's not as hard core as doing trig to compute altitude.
I had a skim of the surface of trig in Algebra II, and more advanced trig in Pre-Calc. Algebra II wasn't mandatory, I don't remember if Geometry was, but the classroom has plenty of students.
How 'bout the original MTV MJs
NTP2
Well-Known Member
Ohh boy I guess I’ll be able to replace my egg timer next year
On a more serious note, engineering was more popular back then, now lots of people who would have tried for engineering do welding because it pays much better and welding doesn’t need math (although machining does).
Ps to compare, one of the best paying engineers is a machine learning specialist at 250k per year a welder makes 100k per year… no college required.
PPs and to make top money as a machine learning engineer requires being highly talented and skilled, I mean you are literally trying to simulate a brain so it makes sense.
dr wogz
Fly caster
Engineering has always been popular, and I'm sure it will continue to be. Only difference is, is now we have much more 'engineering disciplines'. (We once tried to name all the branches of 'engineering here on TRF, about 15 years ago. I think we got up to about 27 or so..)
Also, while you nee dot understand the theories in math, it's easier these days to get the results, (and get results to the nth decimal point!!) remember, until the mid eighties, calculators were still pretty new / novel. (and $$)
Also, 'back then' our parents pushed us to get a degree, as it meant you achieved something. (today, it's kina expected you have some form of post-secondary education) trades were somewhat frowned upon, as it was perceived you weren't "smart enough"..
And here we are today, many engineers working at sales or at the local best Buy. But the trades people (plumber, welders, house framers, etc..) all make a comfy $$$ because they have the skills, and aply them. We need them. Always did, and always will. And now we are trying to make them 'fashionable', to get these skills back! (And you can say this is why China has become what it is, that we've concentrated on the brains, but let the 'manual talent' go elsewhere..)
Remember, the Apollo people put the men on the moon with slide rules & pencil / hand-drawn drawings.
I have to deal with some engs who expect ±.01" over 6 bends on a piece of sheet metal, just because that's what the computer / CAD spits out..
Also, while you nee dot understand the theories in math, it's easier these days to get the results, (and get results to the nth decimal point!!) remember, until the mid eighties, calculators were still pretty new / novel. (and $$)
Also, 'back then' our parents pushed us to get a degree, as it meant you achieved something. (today, it's kina expected you have some form of post-secondary education) trades were somewhat frowned upon, as it was perceived you weren't "smart enough"..
And here we are today, many engineers working at sales or at the local best Buy. But the trades people (plumber, welders, house framers, etc..) all make a comfy $$$ because they have the skills, and aply them. We need them. Always did, and always will. And now we are trying to make them 'fashionable', to get these skills back! (And you can say this is why China has become what it is, that we've concentrated on the brains, but let the 'manual talent' go elsewhere..)
Remember, the Apollo people put the men on the moon with slide rules & pencil / hand-drawn drawings.
I have to deal with some engs who expect ±.01" over 6 bends on a piece of sheet metal, just because that's what the computer / CAD spits out..
And who don't get that, if you really need that degree of accuracy, either you're doing something wrong or you need to do something to get it other than put it on the drawing. Some of us engineers do get it, some don't.
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Sizzlers were amazing!
Fishhead
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Or orange juice in our house. The pulp made them feel slightly hairy. :-D
Fishhead
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This was the first concert my wife ever saw. I thought Toni was hot when I was a kid.
Fishhead
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Early in college I was in a White Castle at 3am after a night across the river. I went to the restroom after I ate. The restrooms were tiny back then, just a stall and a sink, both sharing a common hallway. I walked around the corner and found a 30-something woman, obviously having had a few, holding the ladies room door open so that everyone could see her friend. She was laying on the floor, laughing and laying on the floor under the stall door. She decided to save the $.10 and got stuck. I remember thinking "I'll never get that wasted." Sadly, that was not correct, and in the same general area.
What the actual heck, I started doing trig in 7th grade pre-algebra. If they are seriously not doing trig until pre-calc now, that's a serious disservice to students.
Our "college prep" track for math started in 7th grade and went pre-algebra, Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, Trig, then Calculus. I almost flunked Algebra 2 due to troubles at home. But I had a really good trig/calc teacher.
Her daughter was in our class, too. A bit awkward sometimes...
Her daughter was in our class, too. A bit awkward sometimes...
Different subject, more to the thread:
I'm a child of the 50's, but my oldest son is such a child of the 70's that he was born on Abraham Lincoln's birthday in 1976, the bicentennial of the good old USA. He amazed us by somehow coming up with these:
If you're wondering what the big deal is, zoom up to see who is listed as the manufacturer. And yes, they work wonderfully.
I'm a child of the 50's, but my oldest son is such a child of the 70's that he was born on Abraham Lincoln's birthday in 1976, the bicentennial of the good old USA. He amazed us by somehow coming up with these:
If you're wondering what the big deal is, zoom up to see who is listed as the manufacturer. And yes, they work wonderfully.
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I ask my son about Trig and he said Trig What when he was in high school.
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Trigonometry is now part of Algebra II.
Ok. I trust you. I had Algebra, Algebra II, Trig, Calculus and Trig II in high school. Match that with Biology, chemistry I, Physics, and Chem II. I think I had a well rounded education in science.
That was before RPN and even before TI's first LED 5 function calculator.
That altitude computer was only suitable, at best, for a one time use classroom instruction.
Altitude reduction from tracking data was best done on a slide rule. (or much later on a programmable calculator with a print cradle.)
However, our club president was into computer programming, so he printed out the Barroman Books and made us use them. You looked up three angles and read off the altitude. You had to do that twice, and then average them and difference them to check the closure. My slide rule was faster.
rharshberger
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Odds are based on the colors both were made by Skil to be a "house brand" for JC Penney. I have a Monkey (Montgomery) Ward branded welder (SMAW) and it was actually made by Century which is now a division of Lincoln Welding. Sears had a similar deal with Emerson and other companies, many Craftsman power tools were rebranded Black and Decker, Skil, etc. Gun makers BTW have been doing the house brand thing for over 150 years, for example Western Field shotguns many were Mossbergs or Stevens among other brands.
Don't see that style saw much anymore on construction sites, but they do have their uses so many contractors I know keep one around "just in case", most use worm drive saws now (some or maybe most now use hypoid gears but are still called worm drives). I still have a old Skil direct drive saw thats late 60s or 70s vintage though it mostly collects dust as I prefer my big Skil Mag77 worm drive for near everything that needs a fullsize circular saw.
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NTP2
Well-Known Member
Not me, in less the pythagorean theorem counts as trig.
Ps you probably where going to a better school.
was the college prep what you’d call advanced math now? Because it’s the same except for the renaming of trig.
Ps I wish I was in it, I’ll have to take 2 different math classes in one year in order to catch up.
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