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Karen Warren's avatar

Just read thru your physics project. Saw that you had to learn Excell and thought you might be interested in knowing the guy that wrote Excell For Dummies is an old time musician (clawhammer banjo and guitar), music lover living in Tucson. I met John at Mt Airy Fiddle Festival years ago. He is a great guy! If you ever want/need a connection to the Excell expert let me know.

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Jonathan Byrd's avatar

That’s great! Heck I’d love to meet him. It’s been a joy, honestly, learning it.

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Karen Warren's avatar

I will contact him and forward your last email.

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Bobbie Hayes's avatar

Karen came to lunch yesterday and told me she connected you two!

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Jonathan Byrd's avatar

Not yet, but I’m awaiting the connection

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Naufragous Kat's avatar

I chortled when I got to the M-80. Hope the new house survived the blast! 🧨

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Jonathan Byrd's avatar

If you don’t hear from me you’ll know what happened

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Jenni from Raleigh's avatar

This is awesome!

I love applying physics principles to movies. When I was in college, the second Indiana Jones movie came out. There is a scene where Indy and friends are on a long rope bridge over a high chasm. They hang on while Indy slices the ropes; the bad guys fall to their deaths while Indy slams into a rock wall. We estimated the length of the bridge; ignored the catenary drop, friction, and terminal velocity; and assumed all potential energy was converted to kinetic (mgh=0.5*mv^2; bonus - mass is irrelevant!). And then calculated the speed with which Indy hit the wall (converting from ft/sec to mph. For good measure, we even adjusted the equations so we could put in any value for the bridge length to get speed. One estimate had him hitting at roughly 35 mph. And walking away. Physics says, "Yeah, right..."

Old Star Treks and Star Wars are especially good for taking liberties with physics. I think newer versions are paying more attention!

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Jonathan Byrd's avatar

Thank you, Jenni. I love thinking about this stuff in movies too!

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C. M. Bowers's avatar

Sounds like it went off without a hitch. ;). Beautifully executed!

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Jonathan Byrd's avatar

I see what you did there!

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