El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Lee

Happy birthday, Johnny.

So I have apparently angered the homework gods. Dr. Dekken threw us another 20 problems today so that he could plow on into the chapter on shafts (I can dig it). It was almost made worthwile by two things: 1) He started talking about power transmission, but instead of "power" it sounds like a pirate saying "paaaargh!" 2) We found out when the mid-term was going to be, and the format (in class, open notes, 5 or 6 questions). That's not the worste situation I've dealt with, but Dr. Dekken is no Dr. Shiue.

In Missiles, Dr. Flandro started talking about combustion instability. This is a problem that he has been working on SINCE BEFORE MY DAD WAS BORN. Holy Schnikes! Anyway, its apparently a very big deal that almost every rocket that's ever been designed; for rockets that work its something that gets swept under the rug and for rockets that don't, well those are called "learning experiences," or "bombs." He also made a pipe sing and I got to handle some rocket propellant. It smelled funny.

What can I say about Viscous other than that it went? We're in a patch of stuff that's not terribly interesting, but important. Something about Navier-Stokes applications. And it related to crankshafts somehow.

During lunch, it was brought to my attention that my trajectory code was erroneous. It wound up being serendipidous, though, which is a good thing. On the one hand, it turns out that all the work I did on Friday was a waste, but on the other hand, I was able to get a much smaller missile out of the deal. I'm now at a 1500 lbm, 2 stage rocket with an effective range of about 400 miles. Not bad, not bad at all.

Tomorrow night is wing night at B-Dubs. I might just have to go.