Homework help

[mnemosyne]

I'm hoping someone here can help me out with a homework related dilemma I have. I have an assignment for my Fluid dynamics class, on frictional flows through constant-area pipes (Fanno flow), and I'm not sure how to proceed past this little obstacle.

See, there's a cat on my lap, and she's sleeping, and she clearly doesn't want me to move, so I can't reach my pen and paper.

Anyone have any advice?

[Shawn]

Light the cat on fire.

Problem solved.

[HongKongFooey]

Trick Giraffe into doing your work and then have him mail the work to you. No sweat.

[Knee]

Have the cat do the homework. Enjoy a mimosa.

[Solfy]

Annoy the cat. My favorite method is to juuuuust touch the very ends of the hairs on the inside of their ears. Makes their ear twitch. The more you do it, the more they realize that you're doing it, and you're doing it intentionally. Eventually mine get mad and go somewhere else.

[lifeboat]

Funnel + Fluid flow into constant-area pipe = Relevant experiment + Problem solved.

[iampunha]

Originally Posted by mnemosyne

See, there's a cat on my lap, and she's sleeping, and she clearly doesn't want me to move, so I can't reach my pen and paper.

You're at the computer.

Do the problem in Notepad.

[Panacea]

Are you using Manning's equation, Chezy, or what?

[mnemosyne]

Well, the cat left my lap when the neighbours dropped something and made a loud noise, but I note that most of the solutions presented in this thread involved using an item that wasn't in my reach - no lighters/matches/other sources of flame, no mimosas, no funnels, no Giraffe (though I imagine PM could have worked for that!). If I had been willing to get up and get those items, 1) the cat would have left my lap so that 2) there would no longer be a need for the items resulting in 3) me standing up for no reason.

Annoying the cat could have worked. It usually does.

iampunha - I would have needed the homework sheet as well as the reference tables from my bag, though I wasn't clear on that.

NinetyWeight - in a sad reflection of the quality of my education, I have no idea what you are talking about. None of our equations seem to have any names, and we solve most of our problems using the Isentropic, Normal Shock, Fanno and Rayleigh tables in our coursepack.

[Panacea]

Originally Posted by mnemosyne

NinetyWeight - in a sad reflection of the quality of my education, I have no idea what you are talking about.

In a sad reflection of my dumbassery, I failed to read the OP until after I posted, and noted that you weren't asking about equations at all.

[mnemosyne]

Clearly you get way too excited about the possibility of answering questions about Fluid Dynamics! I didn't actually have any issues with the assignment!

And as of a minute ago, the cat is back on my lap. But the other cat is on the desk and growling up a storm (they hate each other today) so I expect the lap cat to either leave, or I'll end up in the middle of an epic fight for control of the vicinity around the desk. I hope it's the former!

[Jaglavak]

Hmmm. Fanny flow is indeed a fluid dynamics problem, but I'm afraid it's not the kind of thing you can solve with pen and paper.

[Patience Worth]

::having no idea what the hell anyone said so I'll just hold the cat::
NICE KITTY

[mnemosyne]

Originally Posted by Patience Worth

::having no idea what the hell anyone said so I'll just hold the cat::
NICE KITTY

Watch it, she can be a little pointy. Overdue for a claw trimming! Hold her sideways across your belly and she'll nuzzle her nose into your elbow and stay there!

My next homework assignment is a lab on continuous vibrations. Not nearly as fun as you'd think it would be.

[Solfy]

Most cats make continuous vibrations.

[mnemosyne]

True. And the loudest of my two likes to get in front of my computer monitor and purr. She doesn't understand that she's not transparent.

[Nebelhund]

What the world need less of is invisible cats. Even more furry things to wander between my legs while walking I don't need.

(This is where I shake my fist at the heavens and scream "KAHN!")

[Patience Worth]

Originally Posted by mnemosyne

Watch it, she can be a little pointy. Overdue for a claw trimming! Hold her sideways across your belly and she'll nuzzle her nose into your elbow and stay there!

My next homework assignment is a lab on continuous vibrations. Not nearly as fun as you'd think it would be.

If you need a _______(even if I could remember, I'd never spell it right) that thing that measures vibration in machinery - anyway, I have one. It belonged to my late husband and if I can't spell it I sure as hell have no need for it. I'll sell it to ya. He wanted 3-grand for it, so I guess that is fair.
Let me know. And, thanks for the tip about the cat. I'll watch that.

[hajario]

I have a Masters in Mechanical Engineering and I did my Masters oral exam in fluid dynamics so theoretically that is my area of expertise. Unfortunately, my professional specialty is in manufacturing and product development and I barely even remembered that there was such a thing as Fanno flow. It's been a little over twenty years since I have even looked at such things.

As I recall, that shit is all empirical so you just plug and chug and look at charts. It's real word stuff so the very last thing that you want is a theoretical scientist like Giraffe to fill your head full of nonsense. He probably could help you with the cat though. He can give you one of those Schrodinger boxes which will at help you half of the time on average. The bad news is that half of the time, things don't work out so well for the kitty.

[mnemosyne]

Originally Posted by Patience Worth

If you need a _______(even if I could remember, I'd never spell it right) that thing that measures vibration in machinery - anyway, I have one. It belonged to my late husband and if I can't spell it I sure as hell have no need for it. I'll sell it to ya. He wanted 3-grand for it, so I guess that is fair.
Let me know. And, thanks for the tip about the cat. I'll watch that.

Thanks, but no thanks. I'm highly unlikely to ever need it, given as I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up in a regulatory/office job! Besides, these labs are for school, and since the actual lab room is under renovation, they just give us data from previous years and tell us to write a report. No actual measurement-taking required! This is my last lab EVAR!

Originally Posted by hajario

I have a Masters in Mechanical Engineering and I did my Masters oral exam in fluid dynamics so theoretically that is my area of expertise. Unfortunately, my professional specialty is in manufacturing and product development and I barely even remembered that there was such a thing as Fanno flow. It's been a little over twenty years since I have even looked at such things.

As I recall, that shit is all empirical so you just plug and chug and look at charts. It's real word stuff so the very last thing that you want is a theoretical scientist like Giraffe to fill your head full of nonsense. He probably could help you with the cat though. He can give you one of those Schrodinger boxes which will at help you half of the time on average. The bad news is that half of the time, things don't work out so well for the kitty.

Yes, it is all plug and chug, and really not all that hard. I've got an A in the course so far, and mistakes have usually been stupid math ones where I manage to do things like write 1cm=0.1m or whatever. I once lost marks on an exam because I wrote 2x+4x = 4x. Really, this is why you all want me in an office, and not actually designing things!

Unless Giraffe's Shrodinger's box is also transparent, I don't see how that could help. The cat would just be in a box in front of the monitor! I could move the box...but then I could just move the cat, too. She just gets growly when I try because she likes to chase the mouse on the screen.

The same cat also likes to sit in front of the TV when I watch hockey (which is often!) and she bats at the players and tries to chase them when they go off the edge of the screen. Last night she swapped repeatedly at Chris Pronger. Good kitty.

[Uthrecht]

Originally Posted by Nebelhund

(This is where I shake my fist at the heavens and scream "KAHN!")

Somebody isn't that big of a Star Trek fan.

Originally Posted by mnemosyne

Watch it, she can be a little pointy. Overdue for a claw trimming!

Oh, that's easy enough. It's really fast. You just get a really big clipper and put it around the cat's neck. Two problems solved in half the time!

[Jaglavak]

Smile when you say that, varmint.

[Jaglavak]

Originally Posted by Patience Worth

If you need a _______(even if I could remember, I'd never spell it right) that thing that measures vibration in machinery...

Fast Fourier Transform Vibration Spectrum Analyzer. Handy little boxes.