@jennisbaum

Iceland

No road is long with good company.

Turkish Proverb (via fyp-philosophy)

This Day in Aviation History

August 22nd, 1952

First flight of the Saunders-Roe Princess flying boat.

The Saunders-Roe SR.45 Princess was a British flying boat aircraft built by Saunders-Roe, based in Cowes on the Isle of Wight. The Princess was the largest all-metal flying boat ever constructed.

The project was cancelled after having produced only three examples. By the 1950s, large, commercial flying boats were being overshadowed by land-based aircraft. Factors such as runway and airport improvements added to the viability of land-based aircraft, which did not have the weight and drag of the boat hulls on seaplanes nor the issues with seawater corrosion.

The three airframes were stored against possible purchase but when an offer was made it was found that corrosion had set in; as a result they were scrapped….

Source:

Wikipedia, Saunders-Roe Princess: http://gstv.us/1MDH8iU  

YouTube, Saunders-Roe Princess Flying Boats: http://gstv.us/1MDH9U9  

If you enjoy the “This Day in Aviation History” collection, you may enjoy some of these other collections from Gazing Skyward TV: http://gstv.us/GSTVcollections  

Photo from: http://gstv.us/2b2abBr  

#avgeek #flying #boat #SaundersRoe #Princess #British #aviation #history

Vic Elford Porsche Targa Florio 1969

how do you feel about tau

τ is cool, but really not practical for me. 

And I honestly do not feel like the τ vs π argument makes any sense at all. The two numbers are both technically correct and are just different ways of relating the circumference of a circle to two related, but DIFFERENT aspects of its geometry. 

As far as learning goes, τ does make a lot more intuitive sense than π and I will definitely give it that. It most certainly does make sense to relate the radius of a circle to its circumference! 

But the idea that π is wrong and that τ is somehow “more correct” is a weird logical fallacy:

There is a relation between the diameter of a circle and the circumference called π

There is a relation between the radius of a circle called τ

We use the measurements utilizing radii more than we use diameters

Therefore π is wrong. 

???? This argument doesn’t make sense. They’re two different relationships based on two different things. It’s like saying Fahrenheit is wrong because Celsius is easier to use.    

From the stance of someone in astrophysics, I really don’t think making τ the standard is practical at all. I have issues with it because τ is used as a symbol for many many MANY other things in my field. We use τ to represent time constants, optical depths, and torque and I feel like making the switch would be incredibly difficult and confusing because we use π in some of those. It’d make my life (and a bunch of other peoples’ lives) a lot more difficult to make the big shift, especially since π is not technically incorrect given its definition.

I say that both of them are good. I’m in camp “using π” because it’s most practical for me, but I don’t care if someone else uses τ because it works for them! 

Ok I got distracted but anyways yes this is my opinion

Eleven Interactive Fractals in 2D & 3D

Just something to think about:

"Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam." - Carl Sagan

Skógafoss

ellis-samizdat.tumblr.com (by Andrew ‘Samizdat’ Ellis)