IEEE Consultants' Network of Long Island

Quadratic Equation - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

In ninth grade algebra class, we were taught how to find the roots of a second order polynomial equation, also called a quadratic equation. We were given a little sing-song to memorize as the process for finding those roots. In a crude attempt at phonetics, it went like this:

"Minus-bee-plus-or-minus-the-square-root-of-bee-squared-minus-four-ay-cee-all-over-psshhht-two-ay."

We were given this to learn like we might have learned "Jack and Jill went up the hill" but with no instruction on how this recitation would always work.

Here's how:

Rote memorization did work, at least for most of us, but I feel just a little bit cheated for having gone so long without having ever looked into this.

Cynicism Revisited - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Cynicism tends to arise from conceit.

The cynic believes himself or herself to be possessed of a superior intellect which allows the cynic to put together connections between loosely distributed tidbits of input and from those tidbits, to draw unassailable conclusions which reflect negatively, never positively, upon this or that target person or target institution.

The possibility that some of those tidbits may be in error is denied. The possibility that someone of a broader, more powerful intellect might come to a different conclusion is simply dismissed.  The cynic's own intellectual prowess is held, with great conceit, to be above challenge.

For example, I have now and then been asked by various persons to follow them in dietary regimens which departed quite significantly from what I believed to be normal. When I would question the medical advisability of those diets, the cynical response would be "Doctors don't know anything!!" followed by a discourse on their so-called research garnered from magazine articles and radio interview programs. Decades of medical training would be dismissed as just so much fluff.

I am by no means a mental health care professional. I am as lay a lay person in that field of endeavor as you can imagine. However, I have come to a layman's conclusion that cynicism is a stubbornly ingrained trait in those who have succumbed to it and that I have little to no chance of helping to assuage it.

Tennessee Ernie Ford (and many others) sang the song: "If I Can Help Somebody".

Try it at:   If I Can Help Somebody

This is a beautiful rendition, but if the 'somebody' is the aforementioned cynic, I don't think success will come about.

Self Preservation and COVID-19 - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

I saw an on-the-scene video of a recent street demonstration in my town where a reporter had a woman in front of him who was not wearing a mask and who was going here and going there, close to this person and then close to that person and who asked of the reporter, "Why are you wearing a mask?"

He replied "I'm wearing a mask because I don't want to catch the virus from you!" to which she replied "You're a coward." and stalked off with some kind of indistinct expletive as she strode away.

I asked myself, is it possible that this woman has no sense of self preservation? The virulence of a COVID-19 infection, the relatively easy person-to-person transmission of the virus and the many thousands of reported deaths from the virus add up to a situation from which I would think any sane person would want to be protected. Then something dawned on me.

I don't think that this woman believed any of the news media reports about the nature of the pandemic.

I think that the woman was consumed by the most extreme cynicism and was utterly convinced that "the liberal media" had conjured up loads of "fake news" and that the virus was not to be taken seriously. In so believing and behaving, she was endangering her own life plus the lives of many others.

I hope she and anyone to whom she comes near will remain well, but I am pessimistic about the probabilities. It is very much her kind of misbehavior that imperils reopening efforts.

Space Vacuum - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

From the following URL,       https://spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov/weekly/RBSP9.pdf        , we find the following text: 

"At sea level, the average density of air molecules (oxygen and nitrogen) is 2.5x10²⁵ molecules/m³." 

One cubic centimeter  would have one one-hundredth the dimensions of one cubic meter which means a volume of .01³ = 10^-6 cubic meter. From that, we obtain that a volume of one cubic centimeter would give us     2.5 x 10²⁵/10⁶ molecules/cm³ = 2.5 x 10¹⁹ molecules/cm³.

Each molecule of the two subject gases is made of two atoms. From this, we now say that the average atmospheric density is 2 x 2.5 x 10¹⁹ atoms/cm³. which comes to 5 x 10¹⁹ atoms/cm³ which at one atmosphere of pressure, corresponds to 760 Torr.

We once had a lecturer at LICN who described a high vacuum system that was able to produce a pressure of 10^-6 Torr, a level that was said to be state of the art. The atomic atmospheric density at that pressure would come to (10^-6 / 760) x (5 x 10¹⁹) = 6.58 x 10¹⁰ atoms per cm³.

In Scientific American, June 2020, the article "A Planet Is Born" by Meredith A. MacGregor, on page 56, we read "The typical density of empty space is only one atom per cubic centimeter, ...".

From that ,we find pressure as (1 / (6.58 x 10¹⁰) ) *10^-6 Torr = 1.52 x 10^-17 Torr.

To put this into a different perspective, we may write:

20 x log₁₀ ((10^-6 / (1.52 x 10^-17)) = 20 x log₁₀ (6.58 x 10¹⁰) = 216 dB lower pressure level in space than in than the cited vacuum apparatus.

Mother Nature once again far outshines humanity's best achievement to date.

Blood Oxygen Measurement - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Blood oxygen is often measured using a "pulse oximeter". The measurement depends on comparisons of the absorptions of pulsed red and infrared light passing through the patient's body, sometimes through a finger tip, sometimes elsewhere.

A question comes to mind: Would the accuracy of oxygen readings be different between patients of different races?

I am Caucasian and of very light complexion. Would someone of very dark complexion have different wavelength absorption characteristics from my own and would such a difference affect oxygen level test results?

I have not so far been able to find any reference info.