One of the joys of going to Mines is LON-CAPA. Learning Online – Computer Assisted Personal Approach is an open source, web-based program developed at Michigan State University. LON-CAPA homework is usually due on Monday, but people work on it all week. Another one of CAPA’s “features” is a message board system. I now present to you a selection of following messages from the “Pushing Meteor” problem:
needlessly complicated Anonymous Reply (Mon Oct 3 19:23:17 2005)
I say that we drill to the C.O.M and detonate a really
large explosive to split it in two. much simpler than
trying to move the entire thing with lots of rockets with
complicated angles and excessive calculations. hehe
Joyce (***** at csm) Reply (Mon Oct 3 23:29:38 2005)
Don’t be intimidated by the scary picture. The problem is a lot easier than it looks. Just take it step by step. Watch the signs on torque!!
Nerds Christopher (***** at csm) Reply (Tue Oct 4 16:50:17 2005)
Ah man how boring would a movie be about an asteroid
heading toward earth…and the whole movie is just a bunch
of nerds trying to figure out the angle and force and
torque of a bunch of rockets on the asteroid…ahh
man…we are those nerds…damn!
Re: Nerds Kyle (***** at csm) Reply (Tue Oct 4 16:58:35 2005)
Chris, you need to be quiet and just play ball.
balls hawaiian superman Reply (Wed Oct 5 15:37:09 2005)
I’ve got balls you could play with.
LON-CAPA HATES ME! Anonymous Reply (Thu Oct 6 00:58:19 2005)
AAAAAHHHHH!!!? This program hates me.? I enter in units that apparently don’t exist or formulas it doesn’t recognize.? I need a translator stat. OR MY HEAD WILL EXPLODE!? Much like the asteroid in the Movie Armagedon.? Also if there were enough explosions due to leaking liquid hydrogen, then the movie about the geeks might be cool.
Re: needlessly complicated Joseph (***** at csm) Reply (Thu Oct 6 11:15:17 2005)
which is worse,
a big asteroid hitting one place or a shotgun shell the
size of an asteroid, little asteroids are worse.
by the way I dibs bruce willis in the movie version of this
problem
Re: Re: needlessly complicated Theron (***** at csm) Reply (Thu Oct 6 11:43:17 2005)
I dib the guy doing Bruce’s daughter
Re: LON-CAPA HATES ME! Joyce (***** at csm) Reply (Thu Oct 6 14:21:23 2005)
Don’t take lon-capa too personally. It hates EVERYONE!!!
Re: balls Anonymous Reply (Thu Oct 6 17:15:41 2005)
You would love it if he played with your balls, wouldn’t
you, Queer Bait!
Nicole Elizabeth (***** at csm) Reply (Thu Oct 6 18:16:13 2005)
i think this asteroid has 6 letters too many on the end…
Re: Re: needlessly complicated Anonymous Reply (Thu Oct 6 19:09:56 2005)
if you took a large hit, there is a slim chance for
survival, especially if its a crit. however you can survive
shotgun pellets
David (***** at csm) Reply (Thu Oct 6 19:34:00 2005)
about that question on the last part, you need to make sure
all your units are right. cappa changes everything up on
you and makes the torques into MN*m instead of MN*km, which
is what your radius measurement is given in…its pretty
retarded. if you solve it out using the values cappa
changes it to you need to change your r1 into meters as
well.
all this talk of balls just can’t be healthy. c’mon guys
Re: Re: balls Allen (***** at csm) Reply (Thu Oct 6 19:58:02 2005)
your mom’s a queer bait.
Brandon (*****at csm) Reply (Fri Oct 7 16:32:56 2005)
My grandma has asteroids…
Re: needlessly complicated Anonymous Reply (Sat Oct 8 00:51:12 2005)
You know what would be really cool was if after we drilled to the COM and detonated the nuke, it turned out there was a huge pocket of liquid hydrogen in the asteroid.? Then it would be the largest thermonuclear?near earth object ever (or maybe the first). Well either way if the human race survived we would end up with another holiday like the 4th of July, except with bigger fireworks, and that would be fun
0