Brief Post

You know, I was about to log on here and apologize for not having updated recently, and I see I posted something yesterday morning. Well. Leave it to the era of instant feedback to make us all incapable of keeping things in perspective when it comes to computers. To wit: in physics lab this afternoon, we were working out some analysis with a graphing program. Now, the physics graphing software is a handy tool, particularly with a computer at every bench, but since no one in the class had ever used Kaleidoscope before this semester, it sometimes takes a little while for us to figure it out.

Step fifteen in today's lab, for instance, asked us to find the effective frictional torque for the wheel we'd just found a moment of inertia for, and gave us the handy hint: "you can use the identity tool in Kaleidoscope for this step." "Ok, great," we're thinking. "But where's the identity tool? Why, if we could only locate it, we'd be able to get this value with but a single click!"

Two minutes of frustrated searching go by before it dawns on me. Hey, waaiiiiit a second....

"Uh, guys?"

"Yeah?"

"Isn't this value just the x-intercept of the equation we already have?"

"....Yes?"

"Didn't we used to find those by hand, once? You know, back in the day...?"

And sheepish looks were exchanged by all.