Idaho Society of Professional Engineers
Friday Update - 07/02/04
UPCOMING EVENTS:
● NSPE 2004 Convention and Expo, July 8 -
10, 2004, Honolulu, Hawaii
● Mailing Deadline for FE and PE
applications for Fall 2004 testing, August 1, 2004
● ACEC of Idaho Annual Meeting, August 6 -
7, 2004, Sun Valley, ID
● NSPE Western and Pacific Regional
Meeting, September 17-18, 2004, Coeur d'Alene, ID
Striving to Make a Positive First
Impression
Growing concerns about the public perception of engineering have spurred much
discussion about young people's awareness--or lack of awareness--of the
profession. A general absence of understanding in school-age children threatens
the quality of the future pool of engineers. Educators and professional
engineering associations alike are taking great measures to ensure young
students learn about what engineers do and how they affect society and the
world. Read the full
article.
NSPE Cosponsors Upcoming Ethics and Energy Conference
Energy Ethics 2004 will
focus on "Ethics and Changing Energy Markets." The conference will be held at
Notre Dame University on October 28-29 and is sponsored by Notre Dame, Carnegie
Mellon University, NSPE, ASCE, IEEE-USA, ASME, and IEEE's Power Engineering
Society. Topics will include energy market restructuring and ethics, the
California energy crisis, the role of professional societies and educators, and
best-practices development.
MATHCOUNTS PROBLEM OF THE WEEK
Can you solve this MATHCOUNTS problem? The answer will appear in next week's
edition of the Friday Update!
Success On SpaceShipOne
On June 21, 2004 the first successful non-governmental flight to leave the
Earth’s atmosphere was accomplished! The rocket SpaceShipOne was attached to the
plane White Knight for an hour of its ascent, and was then released and
propelled by a rocket motor on the remainder of its 25-minute journey into space
and back down again to earth. In an earlier test, the rocket motor burned for 55
seconds and propelled the rocket to 211,400 feet. Last week, the rocket motor
burned for 80 seconds, and the rocket accomplished a height of 328,491 feet.
Assuming that there is a linear relationship, how high, in feet, would we expect
a rocket to soar if the rocket motor burned for 100 seconds? Express your answer
to the nearest whole number.
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During the 1 hour 25 minute flight, the ratio of the amount of time SpaceShipOne
was attached to White Knight to the amount of time that it was flying solo was
12:5. However, the ratio of the maximum height achieved by SpaceShipOne to the
height at which SpaceShipOne was released by White Knight is 7:1. What is the
height, in feet, at which White Knight released the rocket? Express your answer
to the nearest thousand.
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The underlying reason for this experimental flight is to make it possible for
average citizens to enjoy space flight in the near future. One study estimates
that by 2021, sub-orbital space tourism will earn annual revenues of $700
million by flying 15,000 passengers. (This may seem like a steep fee for making
the journey into space, but just getting the required license to climb Mount
Everest costs $50,000, and hundreds of people attempt the climb each year!)
According to these numbers, what is the predicted average earned revenue per
passenger? Express your answer to the nearest thousand.
Answer to last week's problem:
We can see that the formula Rate × Time = Distance will be useful with this
problem. We know that the entire trip is 2 × 290 = 580 miles and that the entire
time to complete the round-trip was 5.5 + 7.75 = 13.25 hours. Now we have R ×
13.25 = 580. Dividing both sides by 13.25 yields R = 43.8 miles per hour, to the
nearest tenth.
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We’ve been given a lot of information! The song itself is 5 × 60 + 30 = 330
seconds long. Additionally, we have five bridesmaids, each taking a 43-second
walk, which will account for 5 × 43 = 215 seconds. Taking this time, as well as
the 10 seconds of the song that play before the first bridesmaid starts, we have
330 – 215 – 10 = 105 seconds left over. This time will be spread evenly over the
four pauses that will occur between consecutive bridesmaids, so there will be
105 ÷ 4 = 26 seconds, to the nearest whole number, between the end of one and
the beginning of the next.
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We know that we have 137 guests. Since this is an odd number, and only one of
our table sizes is an odd number, then we have at least one 11-person table and
126 guests left over. Since we want the most 12-person tables we can get, we can
perform 126 ÷ 12 = 10.5 to see that there can’t be more than 10. Ten of these
tables would seat 120 people with 6 left over, and this isn’t an option. Nine of
these tables would seat 9 × 12 = 108 people with 18 left over, which again can’t
be split between 11- and 10-person tables. Eight 12-person tables will seat 96
people with 30 people left over. These 30 people can be accommodated by three
10-person tables, so our answer is 8.
If you want to see last week's problem again, click on
http://www.mathcounts.org/Queries/POW_Archive.taf?_function=detail&Q_A_uid1=500&_UserReference=58D66264069B50F340E44AC1
Idaho Society of Professional Engineers
PO Box 170239
Boise, ID 83717-0239
208-426-0636
Fax: 208-426-0639
E-Mail: ispe@rmci.net
Web Site: www.Idahospe.org
Idaho
Society of Professional Engineers
