Archive for March, 2008

March 17th

st patricks day

I took the image and Bob added the text for this on-line greeting. Have a great day!

Comments off

Los Angeles Breakwater

This is the view looking east from Land’s End at the southernmost end of Pacific Avenue in San Pedro. In the distance, tall thunderclouds can be seen over the Santa Ana Mountains. Verna snapped this and I cropped it into a panoramic view of the scene. Click on the picture for the full-sized panorama.

breakwater.jpg

Comments off

Choppy Seas

We took a drive today down to the south side of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Verna took a lot of pictures and I took a few, including this panoramic seascape. Catalina island can be perceived through the sea mist kicked up by blustery winds. Click the image for the full panoramic view.

accesspan.jpg

Comments off

Happy PI Day

During my career in aerospace and also as a pilot and flight instructor, I have been using the quantity PI (approximately equal to 3.14159265). As explained in the article excerpt below, PI is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Also in the article below is the notion that you can approximate the value of PI by throwing needles or frozen hot dogs.

From SpaceWeather.com

pi.jpgHAPPY PI DAY: March 14th (3.14) is PI day and all around the world mathematicians are celebrating this compelling and mysterious constant of Nature. PI appears in equations describing the orbits of planets, the colors of auroras, the structure of DNA. It’s everywhere.

Humans have been struggling to calculate PI for thousands of years. Divide the circumference of a circle by its diameter; the ratio is PI. Sounds simple, but the devil is in the digits. While the value of PI is finite (a smidgen more than 3), the decimal number is infinitely long:

3.1415926535897932384626433832795
02884197169399375105820974944592307
81640628620899862803482534211706…more

Supercomputers have succeeded in calculating PI to more than 200 billion digits and they’re still crunching. The weirdest way to compute PI: throw needles at a table or frozen hot dogs on the floor. Party time!

I wrote a universal triangle calculator using PI and other constants.

Comments (1)

Cactus and Gerberas

These two nice red Gerbera daisies are growing in the cactus pot way way out in the back yard. I didn’t know they were blooming until today!

Comments off

The Birds

We indulge the small sparrows and finches that live in the area by providing feeders and birdbaths. Here, a couple are taking a drink while others are waiting their turn. Photo taken last weekend while we were sitting on the patio swing.

birdbath.jpg

Comments off

Big Name - Tiny Flowers

Argyranthemum Red is an awfully big name for these tiny flowers. Measuring only ¾ inches (2cm) wide, these little guys add a lot of color to the garden in spring and summer. I took this photo over the weekend.

big name

Comments off

« Previous entries · Next entries »