31 January 2013

Engineering Skills

Unintentional 7.5K run in Chateau Γ‰lan. The story is to “die for” πŸ™‚ Originally, the idea was to run through the neighborhood behind the winery for 5K. Somewhere in the hills in the dark, I took a wrong turn and found myself on a State Highway and by now 5K away from where I needed to be. It was a single lane highway with no median and barely any shoulder to run on.
Throwing caution to the wind, I just ran on the highway (on the left side so I could see oncoming traffic). A ferocious looking dog that had greeted me about a mile back might have something to do with the decision πŸ™‚ Judging by the reaction of the drivers, they are not used to seeing runners on that highway πŸ™‚
At one point, after running downhill, I faced a long bridge with absolutely no side space to run on. So, I had to clear the bridge before any oncoming car could enter the bridge.
I summoned all my engineering skills – estimated the length of the bridge, knew my speed, estimated the vehicle’s speed, adjusted for the fact they will accelerate as they hurtled downhill on the other side of the bridge and estimated the point on the road other side of the bridge which was the cut off point (I had to make sure no car had crossed that point). Finally found an opportunity where the next car was beyond that point and I ran like the wind…
And met the car about half way into the bridge πŸ™‚
She was kind enough to move over to the wrong side lane. And I ran the rest of the distance mumbling to myself “One minute is 60 seconds; not 100. One minute is 60 seconds…” πŸ™‚

Category: Running | LEAVE A COMMENT
26 January 2013

Caught in a circle!!

New puzzle!! Like every other responsible brother-in-law, I called up my BIL this morning to check on him and his family. As is his wont, he immediately rewarded me with a puzzle which has stumped me ever since. (I think he is trying to give me a hint πŸ™‚ ). Anyways, I got to the answer intuitively (and I am assuming it is the correct answer since he confirmed it) but for the life of me, I cannot come up with a proof for the answer.
So, here it is: Think of a circle. Now think of all the n-sided regular polygons that can fit in it (all the vertices of the regular polygon will touch the circumference of the circle). Which figure (i.e. for what value of “n” – triangle, square, pentagon, hexagon, heptagon, octagon etc etc ) will have the maximum value for the sum of squares of the sides.
As always, if you know or crack it, send a PM. I will acknowledge in the common forum.

Category: Puzzles | LEAVE A COMMENT
25 January 2013

Man on the moon

“Today Russia announced plans to send a probe to the moon by the year 2015. Russian scientists say they’re excited to see what they could discover on the moon’s surface. I’ll tell you what they’re going to discover – an American flag!” –Craig Ferguson

Category: Humor | LEAVE A COMMENT
23 January 2013

R&R

The r&r option in the company outing was golf, tennis, deep sea fishing, spa, shopping and Zumba. And then I created my own option – choose nothing and instead laze on the beach..

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