• Mostly_Gristle@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      11 months ago

      Nah, I hired an electrician to handle all that for me. Now if I want electricity all I have to do is stick a plug in a socket, or flip a switch. It’s way more convenient.

      • bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        11 months ago

        If the power into your house is off from 60Hz (or 50 depending on your region), an electrician isn’t going to do diddly.

        • datelmd5sum@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          11 months ago

          How could it be off frequecy at house level? Aren’t the generators at the powerplants being spun at 50 or 60 times a second?

          • bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            11 months ago

            Not exactly. There’s a ratio of RPMs of the drive motor to the specific input of the alternator that generates the correct frequency. It depends on the way the alternator is designed (ie number of poles) that will yield the correct frequency, almost like a gear ratio, that is optimized for efficiency, and power plants have to constantly make slight adjustments to the drive motor speed the keep the frequency exact (usually done automatically within the drive control system).

            I’ve never seen frequency be an issue in a residential system, but in theory it could happen.

            • frezik@midwest.social
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              edit-2
              11 months ago

              It used to be common for clocks to be driven directly off the electrical frequency. The US Navel Observatory would call up generator plants and tell them to slow down or speed up a little to make a correction to all the clocks. I’m not sure if that still happens, though.

              • bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                11 months ago

                I’ve heard that trope before, same reason clocks in US schools/govt institutions were always plugged into a wall, hence these. Nowadays, NTP has rendered that obsolete.

            • datelmd5sum@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              11 months ago

              I don’t know how it’s in 60Hz regions, but here the generators are in 3 phases, 120 degrees apart. The voltage gets transformed to up to 400kV, still in 3 phases, and then down to 400V when it’s distributed to peoples’ homes. Then you can pull 400V 3-phase or 230V 1-phase from your wall.

              • bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                11 months ago

                It’s the same here, though we have varying degrees of transmission and distribution voltages via transformers and regulators. In my area, power comes into our valley from the 500kv lines through the open desert, into the valley at 33kv, and stepped down to 5kv for neighborhood distribution that the single phase 240/120v transformers tap off for the EOL.

                More of what I was getting at was that generation is more or less the same across regions. Some external fuel source (whether it’s diesel, natural gas, nuclear, steam, etc) does its thing to drive a rotor that’s connected into an alternator which is essentially an electric motor but instead of the electric motor doing the driving, it’s being driven which generates power, and the RPMs of whatever given fueled drive mechanism are not necessarily 1:1 with the alternator speed.

          • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            11 months ago

            My understanding is that if electrical demand starts outstripping supply the sinewave can start getting badly mishapen.

            From watching videos about synthesizers and playing with VCV Rack I’ve learned far more about waveforms than I ever did from any electrical education or research

      • Liz@midwest.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        11 months ago

        Ah yes, because plumbers, electricians, and brick layers never have to deal with geometry. That being said, none of my geometry education was taught with a practical motivation. But that being said, I was in the advanced track classes, so none of us were becoming professional carpenters. I’m actually probably one of the most “hands-on” people from that class, both in my job and in my life. I build scientific instruments and enjoy fixing things around the house.

  • Muffi@programming.dev
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    38
    ·
    11 months ago

    Trig is honestly the math I’ve used the most since finishing school. But to be fair, that is mostly because it’s useful as hell when doing game development as a hobby.

    • themelm@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      11 months ago

      Or building some stairs or really a ton of shit. Basic trig is such a useful thing that it tells me people who complain about it have never built anything, virtual or physical.

    • fossphi@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      11 months ago

      Fair enough, but did they use it? I always felt like focusing on statistics instead of random trig stuff for non stem people people would be more useful

      • mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        11 months ago

        Sticking with image compression, see Quite Okay Images. It treats each pixel as three numbers and expects mostly small changes. Recent pixels get hashed and can be referenced in a few bits. This is enough to compete with PNG filesizes, an order of magnitude faster, while handling each pixel exactly once.

      • enkers@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        edit-2
        11 months ago

        Agreed, I use highschool level stats knowledge on a nearly daily basis, whereas the last time I did any trig was to follow along with a math video I was watching on YouTube. Trig/calc were mandatory, stats was not.

        • Zink@programming.dev
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          11 months ago

          And stats really should be a mainline math class in high school. It comes up in so many places, and is far too often simplified away into a binary black & white choice.

          Any time something happens that was predicted to be less than 50% likely, people lose their shit. For instance, when it unexpectedly rains or the wrong person wins an election.

          But it’s not even being able to run the numbers or understanding statistical significance. It’s much more basic, just understanding that probabilities and uncertainty exist and are everywhere. My favorite example is when going to the doctor. They explain that whatever you have is probably X or Y, with a small chance of Z, but Y has been going around a lot and is easy to treat, so let’s try medication A for it. Then when that gets reported to friends and family afterwards, it’s “she said I have Y and I need A to fix it.”

          • frezik@midwest.social
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            11 months ago

            Plus, if someone needs calculus for their major, they’ll just make them take it again in college. Why build high school math around it?

    • slackassassin@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      28
      ·
      11 months ago

      Best take right here. Trig shows up a lot when you actually do stuff. Woodworking, programming, physics, art, music, philosophy. Math shit is universal human language.

      • Aasikki@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        11 months ago

        I like doing stuff but my adhd literally won’t let me learn trig 🤣 my brain will just shut down and start daydreaming of literally anything else.

        • slackassassin@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          11 months ago

          Don’t tell yourself that, unless you’re just not that interested. It takes more work and catering some creative solutions, but it is worth it. I got an engineering degree before I was ever even diagnosed or medicated.

          • Aasikki@sopuli.xyz
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            11 months ago

            I’m totally not interested in math stuff, like at all. If I need it for what I’m trying to do, or if it greatly helps me with it, I still end up learning it anyways though :) People often say that learning in practice is the best way and I feel like that is even much more true for me personally. I’m goal oriented af, and I make all those goals myself based on what I want to do. If I really really really want to do something, there’s nothing that will stand in my way, I’ll find a way. I’m the type of person to get frustrated and say “fuck this I give up”, only to be back at it after 30 mins because giving up isn’t actually something that exists in my head haha.

            So no need to worry about me telling myself that. I guess I was thinking from the perspective of just studying it because of studying it, which yeah is basically impossible for me unless it’s just something I’m really interested in and I’m stuck browsing Wikipedia at 3AM. Thanks for the encouragement though, nice stranger! I really do appreciate it.

      • rambling_lunatic@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        11 months ago

        The other fields I get (trig is insanely useful), but how the bloody hell does one use trig functions in philosophy? Are we gonna be triangulating the border of science to solve the demarcation problem?

        • slackassassin@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          11 months ago

          Math is philosophy, and trig does a very good job of describing the world we experience. The unit circle, right angles, pythagorean theorem, sinusoidal damping, etc, are all pretty philosophical concepts. What else could the be.

    • caseyweederman@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      11 months ago

      Woah. I was really expecting the “will we ever use this in life”/“you won’t but some of the smarter kids might” strip, which is also SMBC.

  • Gnome Kat
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    27
    ·
    11 months ago

    I like math :) Its mysterious and fascinating and constantly surprising, like seeing the source code of the universe. Closest shit we have to actual magic.

    • PeWu@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      13
      ·
      11 months ago

      Do I like math? Yes

      Do I understand a tiny bit of it? Absolutely not

    • Yuumi@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      16
      ·
      11 months ago

      HAHAHAHA GOOD LUCK! I’m in my final year of my EE study and I cannot wait to escape this mental asylum

      • Omgarm@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        16
        ·
        11 months ago

        Electrical Engineers are the psychos for using j instead of i. Absolutely bonkers.

      • Got_Bent@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        11 months ago

        There is hope for you after the asylum. My daughter has an EE degree. While in school, she would call me every October and tell me how terrible it was and that she wanted to drop out. I would talk her off the ledge, and she got through.

        Now she’s working, making more money than I do in her early twenties, and she loves loves loves her job.

        Keep going!

      • RiderExMachina@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        11 months ago

        Luckily I have 6 years of Electronics manufacturing experience, so the math and theory are the things I’ll need to learn most of. Unfortunately, those things are the hardest part…

    • Chreutz@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      11 months ago

      Don’t worry.

      Trig is not hard ☺️

      Compared to what you’re also gonna learn 🤣

      Signed, An EE graduate from 2016, who now works in embedded fixed point signal processing 😵

  • DrPop@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    20
    ·
    11 months ago

    Trigonometry is extremely useful when constructing things. Need to know the length of wood needed to go from corner to corner. That’s trig my friend.

      • Lazz45@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        11 months ago

        A^2 + B^2 = C^2 is known as the Pythagorean theorem. This theorem explains the proportionality of the 3 sides of a right triangle (a triangle with 1 corner angle = 90 degrees). If you know the length of 2 sides (in his example, the wall beams) you can find out the length of the third (in his example, this would be the supporting strut spanning the beams that meet at a 90 degree angle). If their example is explaining a beam that spans the room from 1 corner to the other, you still use this formula as a rectangle is 2 right triangles that meet along their hypotenuse (the longest leg of a right triangle, or the length you are solving for in this problem). The 2 known sides are the length/width of the room, and you solve for the 3rd side, your diagonal beam

        • Chadus_Maximus@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          edit-2
          11 months ago

          Did Pythagoras even know about sin, cos and tan? I am reluctant to call A^2 +B^2 =C^2 trigonometry.

          Hipparchus, the alleged founder of trigonometry, was alive 350 years after Pythagoras (500BC to 150BC).

          • Lazz45@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            11 months ago

            Completely fair point, that I do not think I have the knowledge to speak on. On the Trigonometry Wikipedia page, he pops up a few times, and many trig identities are known as pythagorean identities. Perhaps its not fully trig, but was used as a basis to help discover trig? Without having the understanding pythagorus gave mathematicians regarding triangles, I would think it would be pretty hard to begin developing deeper math regarding said triangles

            • Getawombatupya@aussie.zone
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              11 months ago

              Squaring using 3+4=5 is one of the oldest relationships used by masons. don’t need a ruler, just a piece of string or straight edge. Pythagoras described the relationship on paper

    • Tetsuo@jlai.lu
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      11 months ago

      I must be missing something in this comment.

      Can someone tell me how chicken coops are related to that ?

      • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        14
        ·
        11 months ago

        One common application of trig is figuring out lengths and angles of triangles. Planning on building anything usually involves triangles.

      • Gabu@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        13
        ·
        11 months ago

        Building anything requires trigonometry, unless you just say “fuck it” and hope the thing doesn’t fall apart, which is a pretty stupid way to live life.

      • jawa21@startrek.website
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        11 months ago

        Chicken coops have a ramp for the entrance, so when building it, you need to know the length of the ramp required for the desired angle, as well as making the"rungs" (I don’t know what they are actually called) on said ramp flush with the ground.