RE: Badge Placement...

[Khan Klatt <kmk@pacificrim.net>]

At 9:56 AM -0400 8/6/99, Ng, Kevin (NationsCredit) wrote:
>Tsk, tsk. Khan, you may have aced your math class, but you obviously have
>some more studying to do in your physics class. Your math assumes that we
>live in a perfect world, in a vacuum, devoid of atmospheric conditions and
>the effects of gravity. For instance, in order for your method to work, the
>laser attached to a tall building or crane would have to be *fixed* relative
>to the car. The accuracy of the laser is reduced the farther away the laser
>is, because in the real world, high winds, the heat of the sun, and
>modulations in the earth's crust would significantly alter the laser's
>position relative to the car, thus rendering your method useless. The car's
>position is never fixed either. By the time the experiment can be setup
>correctly, air pressure in the tires would have decreased, and the springs
>would have sagged, thereby changing the another key variable. I don't even
>want to get into the effects of gravity.
>
>Remember, the key law of motion here is that the angle of the dangle is
>directly proportional to the beat of the meat.

While my esteemed colleague is quite correct in his observations 
regarding the parameters that would affect the calculations, it would 
become experimentally obvious that these parameters would not 
substantially make enough of a difference, considering that the 
largest inconsistency or margin for error would be introduced by 
manually affixing the badge to the car.

While elaborate, and more trouble than just "eyeballing it", my 
technique *is* feasible. Finding a vacuum, and removing the trunk 
from the car (obviating the need for calibrating tire pressures and 
adjusting spring rates) are a big tradeoff in convenience for a 
marginal improvement in accuracy in alignment.

I differ with Dr. Ng's statement that the conditions would "render" 
my method "useless". It would simply introduce a margin of error that 
could be ignored due to the larger margin of error that would be 
introduced by human manipulation of the badge to the car. Further, 
over hundreds of thousands of years, even the adhesive would begin to 
wear off and start to sag, and perhaps even fall off.

While I'd be the first to acknowledge my technique is neither perfect 
nor permanent, it is practically feasible, as long as you were 
prepared to accept the tradeoffs of the errors introduced by the 
procedure.

I will be submitting my technique to the Journal of Irreproducible 
Results if I the peer review is over.

-Khan