What makes math such an appealing hoice for this pilot program?

Although this ipad app puts graphing calculators to shame (source: http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/117625-california-testing-ipads-as-algebra-textbooks).

Below is a function I used to plot smith chart results in matlab.  I used basic plotting code to generate the chart itself, and added a simply plot function to add the impedance locus and constant VSWR circles.  Hope this is helpeful!  Please let me know if anyone finds a bug.  I will note that there is no safeguard in the function for s-parameters that are greater than 1, which if you are plotting the active S-parameters of a multiport device, are possible.  This isn’t a big deal when the S-parameter goes slightly above 1, but if it swings well above 1 you end up with a tiny smith chart and these erratic line segments…it’s a mess.  For passive applications I haven’t come across a bug yet.

smithchart.m

http://billwhirity.com/milo/videos/microwave_implosion.mov

UPDATE:

http://www.billwhirity.com/milo/index.html

Has a trailer and information about the movie.  I have seen it, and it is excellent!

The last couple days have been full of some nasty, although short-lived storms.  It has been very hot and humid, and so these mid-afternoon/early-evening storms build up.  On friday I was walking home from campus and got caught in the middle of a really, really bad storm.  Tons of lightning nearby, which isn’t good when walking past huge open farm fields, and torrential rainfall, making it hard to see maybe a quarter of a mile down the road.  I was left with thes two options: take the meager shelter offered by the bus stop I came to, and maybe hop on a bus that may be here any minute, or could be up to an hour away from making this stop, or start running.  Noting the amount of lightning and the tiny bus enclosure next to some huge trees, I decided it was unwise to stay at the bus stop.  So I started sprinting the 3/4 mile back to my apartment in the pouring rain, with sandels on, and my macbook in my non-water resistant messenger bag.  I made it back to my apartment, soaking wet, but thankfully my macbook and the contents of my bag were relatively dry.  Also, as soon as I got in the front door of the house my apartment is in, the storm picked up tremendously – both in rain and amount of lightning.  Then the power went out, I actually heard the transformer down the street pop from a lightning hit.  The top half of a huge evergreen tree in my backyard fell over, not sure if it was from the wind or lightning.  Lots of big branches down up and down the block.  Power was out for about 5 hours, and campus lost power over that time too.  This is where my problems actually started.

When the power came on at my apartment, I tried logging into my work comp, which couldn’t because the network was down, and I later found out was off due to the power going out.  So on saturday I ride my bike over to campus to do a little work, which I could have done from home if my computer wasn’t off.  I took the long route to campus beause that route is makes for an interesting ride, and I was in no hurry to get to campus, but when I was halfway there near a farm (which allowed me to see, instead of the tree lined roads), off to the west I can see really dark clouds forming.  “Oh crap”, I thought, I am gonna get caught in another storm.  So I picked up the pace and made it over to campus in time for it to start pouring — even harder than on friday.  And wind like I have never seen here — huge gusts blowing the rain straight sidways.  And while storming pretty bad, the lights dimmed a few times, the emergency lights flickered on for a split second — I then decided it wan’t worth running my computer given the possibility of losing power again or, worse, a surge.  So I unplugged my computers, including the ethernet, and got a ride home from a friend in lab.

So today (sunday), I head over on the bus and intend to restart my computers, and ride my bike back to my apartment.  No storm was on the verge of exploding when I got to lab, so I figured my luck was changing.  Instead, in complete sunshine, the power goes out in our building.  The building next to us had power, but we did not.

So for three days in a row my computer has been down for the count, and I won’t have the simulations I was hoping to have tomorrow, monday.  My luck stinks right now, it turns out!

I always like this view from the ramps at New Comiskey (Us Cellular Field):

I bought 2 creative hard disc MP3 players between 2005 and 2006, so apparently I am entitled to either 50% off a 1GB player or a 20% discount from their website. This may mean some purchases are in order from Creative!

It’s on!