YOU ARE INVITED….
ACEC of Idaho’s Engineering Excellence Awards Luncheon.
Monday, April 14, 2008, 12:00 – 1:30 PM. Cascade Room – Holiday Inn, 3300 Vista
Avenue, Boise.
Click here for more information and
registration form.
2008 EXCELLENCE IN TRANSPORTATION AWARDS
The Idaho Transportation Department would like to announce the
2008 Excellence in Transportation Awards.
In order to recognize the exceptional contributions made to Idaho's
transportation systems every year, starting this year ITD will annually sponsor
the Excellence in Transportation Awards. We cordially invite you to submit an
application in one of the following award categories:
Transportation Planning
Environmental Stewardship
Public Participation
Design
Construction
For additional information on eligibility and criteria as well as to download
the award application, please visit our website at
http://itd.idaho.gov/excellence.award/default.htm
Applications must be received by the ITD Awards Coordinator by
May 27, 2008 by 4:00 p.m.
An Awards Ceremony will be held at the HQ Auditorium on
June 26, 2008 from 2-4 p.m.
Refreshments will immediately follow in the lobby.
Please forward this on to any agencies, organizations, firms that might be
interested in applying for an award.
Direct any questions to Monica Crider, ITD's Local Roads Manager, at 334-8495.
Revitalized Idaho mining industry seeks workers. (Reprinted
from the
NSPE Daily Designs)
The
New York Times (4/3, A16, Yardley) reported that, after the real estate
market in Idaho's Silver Valley slowed and silver prices shot up,
"once-struggling or -shuttered mines...have been revived and are expanding into
the hillsides." Just "a few years ago" silver was $5 an ounce, and mines in the
northeastern Idaho region of Silver Valley "were closed or running skeleton
crews or immersed in seemingly endless environmental cleanups." Today, silver
"is around $17 an ounce, there is talk of reopening a local mining training
site," and the industry is "is reaching out across the West to find workers."
Kathryn Tacke, "a regional economist" with the Idaho Department of Labor, said,
"One of the things we never thought we would be experiencing again is a
desperate need for more miners." According to Tacke, the "average pay for mining
jobs in...2006 was about $57,000." And the "current total of 700 mining jobs is
a small fraction of the 4,000 that the county had in the early 1980s," but "it
is 200 more than at this time last year."
ISPE SINCERELY APPRECIATES THE SUPPORT OF ALL OF OUR
CURRENT SUSTAINING
ORGANIZATIONS:
AHJ Engineers, PC
B & A Engineers, Inc
Briggs Engineering Inc
Delta Engineering Group
Elkhorn Engineers
G & S Structural Engineers
J.M. Miller Engineering, Inc
J-U-B Engineers, Inc
Kittelson & Associates Inc
Land Solutions, Land Surveying & Consulting
Mason & Stanfield, Inc
Materials Testing & Inspection
MWH
Progressive Engineering Group, Inc
Quadrant Consulting, Inc
Rational Technology of Idaho, LLC
Riedesel Engineering, Inc
Schiess & Associates
Stapley Engineering
Terracon
TerraGraphics Environmental Engineering, Inc
Walker Engineering
Please consider joining these great companies in
becoming an
ISPE Sustaining Organization. ISPE offers the Sustaining
Organization category of membership to enhance the visibility of your commitment
to ISPE and the engineering profession. Your membership will allow us to better
serve the engineering community through promoting engineering and ethics, and
supporting the needs of the engineer including professional development.
If you are interested in becoming a
Sustaining Organization, please
contact the ISPE office at
ispe@idahospe.org.
MATHCOUNTS PROBLEM OF THE WEEK
Can you solve this MATHCOUNTS problem? The answer will appear in next
week's edition of the Friday Update!
Springtime & Baseball
As we enter into spring, baseball teams are getting ready for the start of the
new season. Last weekend (March 30th) the Washington Nationals’ new stadium
officially opened. The new stadium holds 41,220 people, and on Opening Day it
was filled to capacity. If 30% of the people ate at least one hotdog, 35% ate at
least one hamburger, and 5% ate at least one hamburger and at least one hotdog,
how many more people ate just a hamburger(s) than ate just a hotdog(s)?
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In Major League Baseball, each baseline is 90-feet long and meets the adjacent
baselines to form 90-degree angles. The 3rd baseman catches the ball 10 feet
behind 3rd base, as shown. How far does he have to through the ball to get it to
the 1st baseman, who is standing 15 ft away from 1st base, as shown? Express
your answer as a decimal to the nearest tenth.
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A player smashes a home run. It lands 522 feet away and reaches a maximum height
of 100 feet when it has traveled 2/3 of its horizontal difference. (Note: home
runs typically do not have a parabolic flight pattern due to air resistance and
other forces.) When the ball reaches its maximum height, how far has the ball
actually traveled through the air, in feet? Disregard the height of the ball
when it was hit. Express your answer as a decimal to the nearest hundredth.
Answer to last week’s MATHCOUNTS problem:
Since, on average, one items enters the atmosphere per day, this year 310
additional items will enter the Earth’s atmosphere (this year is a leap year),
next year 365 items will enter the atmosphere, and so on.
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
310 + 365 + 365 + 365 + 366 + 365 + 365 = 2501
So if we start counting today, in 2014 2,300 pieces of space junk will have
entered Earth’s atmosphere.
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To solve this question we will use the formula time = distance/rate. At the
point that the two pieces of space junk meet they will have traveled for the
same length of time but the piece of junk that started behind the first will
have traveled 1000 miles further than the one that started in the front. We can
use this information to set up two equations with the same variables.
T = d/17,000
T = (d + 2)/17,500
Since we established that they travel for the same length of time, we can set
the two equations equal to each other.
d/17,000 = (d + 1000)/17,500
d = 34,000 miles
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First we need to find out the length of the space junk’s orbit.
C = 2πr = 53721.234315 miles
Now we can divide this distance by the speed at which the junk travels.
53721.234315/16,500 = 3.3 hours, to the nearest tenth
If you want to see last week's problem again, click
http://www.mathcounts.org/webarticles/anmviewer.asp?a=1175&z=110
Idaho Society of Professional Engineers
PO Box 170239
Boise, ID 83717-0239
208-426-0636
Fax: 208-426-0639
E-Mail: ispe@idahospe.org
Web
Site: www.Idahospe.org
Idaho
Society of Professional Engineers
