Idaho Society of Professional Engineers
Friday Update - 02/25/05
UPCOMING EVENTS:
● February 20 - 26, 2005 -
National Engineers Week
● March 1, 2005 -
Nomination deadline for 2005 ISPE Awards. More
information and nomination forms can be found on the ISPE web site
● March 5, 2005 - State
MATHCOUNTS Competition - Boise
● April 14 - 16, 2005 -
ISPE Annual Meeting, Pocatello, Idaho
● July 7 - 9, 2005 - NSPE
2005 Annual Convention, Chicago, Illinois
NOMINATION
DEADLINE FOR 2005 ISPE AWARDS....
It's not too late to submit your nominations for the 2005
ISPE Awards. Awards include the Idaho Engineering Hall of Fame Award, Idaho
Excellence in Engineering Award, Idaho Excellence in Engineering Educator Award,
and Young Engineer of the Year Award. Award criteria and nomination forms can be
found on the ISPE web site at http://home.rmci.net/ispe/awards.htm.
Self-nominations are welcomed and encouraged. Nomination deadline is
March 1, 2005 and awards will be presented during the 2005 ISPE Annual
Meeting at the Holiday Inn in Pocatello.
FROM THE BOARD AND LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE...
please note that an important piece of legislation is currently moving through
this year’s legislature. It is entitled House Bill No. 143 with the following
link. http://www3.state.id.us/oasis/H0143.html. For those practicing in the
field of public works for water and sewer improvements, it proposes significant
revisions to the plan review and approval process from the state’s Department of
Environmental Quality. In particular, it proposes a complete elimination of the
traditional process by which these types of plans and specifications are
approved by the State. ISPE would like to hear comments from the membership on
this matter so that we can understand what your general sentiments are. Please
feel free to drop an email message to Jeff Block-Legislative
Committee Chairman. While we may not have time to take action
during this legislative session, if necessary the board and legislative
committee would consider stepping into the process in some capacity. Otherwise,
we may make it the topic for a possible panel type discussion session at this
year’s annual meeting on April 14, 2005 in Pocatello.
On a secondary matter, it may be of interested to those in Private Practice that
legislation for contractor licensing is once again being proposed. A link to
House Bill No. 163 is http://www3.state.id.us/oasis/H0163.html. Again feel free
to email Jeff Block with any comments you might have. He would be glad to
forward them onto the Idaho Building Contractors Association on behalf of ISPE.
See attached Word document "Article-HB163".
NSPE FUTURE DIRECTIONS TASK FORCE
NSPE's Future Directions Task Force (FDTF) recently presented its preliminary
working model for the future of NSPE to a record turn-out of state leaders at an
NSPE Summit meeting in San Diego. The model that was endorsed by the state
leaders included a revised mission, vision, goals and governance structure.
Get
more information on FDTF activities, including the PowerPoint presentations
from the Summit, the original task force charges, talking points, and previous
presentations.
NSPE CONVENTION LEGACY PROJECT
Each year the National Society of Professional Engineers in cooperation with the
Convention Host Committee selects a worthy charity in the city where the Society
holds its Annual Convention. Through its Legacy Program, the Society works with
engineers in the host city (Host Committee), corporate sponsors in the host
city, corporate sponsors nationally, and convention attendees to raise funds for
the legacy benefactor. This year Chicago Children's Museum has been selected to
receive the 2005 NSPE Legacy Gift. For additional information on this program,
or to donate to NSPE's Legacy Project, please click on
https://programs.regweb.com/NSPE/AC2005/generalaudience/index.cfm?pagegridid=413642
TAKE THE JETS CHALLENGE
Can you solve this JETS challenge problem? The answer will appear in next week's
edition of the Friday Update!
The Challenge of the Leap Year
2004 was the first leap year of the new millennium. (Interesting footnote: On
February 29, 1904, Jimmy Dorsey was born in Shenandoah, PA. He went on to become
a great orchestra leader who worked with Bing Crosby and an unknown Elvis
Presley.) In October 1582, Pope Gregory XIII replaced the Julian calendar
developed by Julius Caesar with the Gregorian calendar we use today (they also
eliminated 10 days in the process to correct for 1628 years of accumulated
error). The Gregorian calendar has a leap year every 4 years, except there is no
leap year in years ending in 00 unless the year is evenly divisible by 400.
How many leap years have occurred since the calendar change was made (including
2004)?
Answer to last week's MATHCOUNTS problem:
We need to find the volume of a rectangular prism that is 5 inches by 7 inches
by 4 inches. To find the volume of such a solid, we multiply the three
dimensions. Such a box would have a volume of 5 ´ 7 ´ 4 = 140 cubic inches.
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This is a problem that is really easier if we answer a different question.
Rather than counting the number of different groups of four hearts to put into
the pouch, it’s easier to count the number of combinations of two hearts to
leave out of each pouch. Each of the six colors could be matched with one of the
five remaining colors, to make a total of 6 ´ 5 = 30 ways to chose the two
colors to leave out. However, this way counts yellow/pink as different from
pink/yellow. So every pair of two colors is represented twice. Therefore, there
are only 15 combinations of two colors since the order doesn't matter. Each of
these combinations of hears to leave out has a corresponding combination of
hears to put in, so there are also 15 different four-heart groupings that could
be used.
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Kendra received 7 + 2 + 1 = 10 flowers, which cost the Key Club 10 ´ 0.69 =
$6.90. However, the people who sent her the flowers paid a total of 7($1) +
2($2) + 1($3) = 7 + 4 + 3 = $14 to the Key Club. This means that the Key Club
spent $6.90, but made $7.10 in profit. This amount of profit is a little more
than the amount spent originally, so we can expect it to be at least 100% of the
amount used to originally purchase the flowers. To be exact, it is 7.10 ¸ 6.90 =
103%, to the nearest whole number.
If you want to see last week's
problem again, click http://205.252.29.34/students/pow2005.html
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
