Tuesday, January 26, 2010

A sabot in the gears

In an effort to destroy the productivity of American office workers and bring down the whole rotten system, I offer you this site as a time-waster. It presents you various problems in eyeballing in answers to some geometrical problems. Not clear, am I? Just go look … you'll be hooked. [3.43, but I'll get better.]

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this link. I didn't do too well, but I got to review my geometry vocab, in case I ever have to teach math again. This explains a lot of my painting.

Sugar Magnolia said...

How do you find these cool sites, Mr. Loon? How fun!

I got a 4.92. I think I'll go get that eye exam I've been putting off......

Truth Ferret said...

I am embarrassed to say that I beat you guys with a 13.77 and yeah I read that a lower score was better. But heck this ain't golf or nuthin' like that, so I am right proud of that there high score.

Ferrets don't need no darn eyeballing of shapes, 'cause we can squirm through some mighty tight angles all by ourselves.

Loon, it was fun. Keep up sending us these sights...I promise to always have such a bad score that anyone else will have to be able to beat me. What's sad is that I even tried to get the answers right.

Pilot said...

Damn, beats solitaire! 2.88 avg for 3 shots. I'll try it in the morning without the effects of the vino and the sleepy eyes.

Truth Ferret said...

okay, what am I doing wrong? You guys are too good. I can't even get single digits scores.

The Loon said...

The Pilot has worked for years with computer-assisted drafting programs that would translate to these skills. I worked for years in the printing trade, working to pretty small increments of spacing. It's all a matter of experience that translates. Sug – Two people with a high-speed connection and lots of time are likely to find many time-wasting sites.

Pilot said...

I'm inclined to think that rather than the computer graphics angle(pun intended), that my ability to look at and get close at least in a geometric puzzle, is more a result of the years I spent on a drafting board with a t-square and plastic triangles wearing holes in the elbows of my shirt, or maybe the time before imported drywall contractors, when I cut and hung sheetrock in houses and apartments that were designed by architects who were no longer content to design buildings that were always square..........

Sugar Magnolia said...

And although the two guys have a better score than me, I will say that when you go to work every day and have to insert tiny needles in tiny veins, you get pretty good at sizing things up properly and learn how to use proper angles.

And working with microscopic things all day give you a good appreciation of judging things on not even a millimeter scale, but on the scale of a micrometer. Tiny,tiny.

I LOVED geometry and any kind of math when I was in school. I was the nerd that couldn't wait to do proofs in geometry, derive the quadratic equation in algebra, and graph parabolas, ellipses and hyperboles in trigonometry. I love it all still. It really gets my motor revved.

The Loon said...

I've worked with print-shop machinists who could easily eyeball detect an aberration of one-thousandth of an inch from true. [Shug, I expect your daddy can.] People are amazing machines sometimes.