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Ellipsis is the official blog of Autodesk's Technical Evangelist Team. We will discuss all things design and manufacturing related with a focus on industries such as automotive and transportation, consumer products, industrial machinery and building product manufacturing and fabrication. We also have resident experts who will blog about specific product developments in CAD, Simulation, Industrial Design and Data Management.
We look forward to providing you, our user community, with the most relevant and up to date developments in our industry, and hopefully with information that will assist you in doing your job better, faster, and more precisely.
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John von Neumann
December 17, 2008 12:00 PMby Jay TedeschiJohn von Neumann, aka "Johnny" was more likely than not the greatest mathematician of the last century, making contributions to a wide range of fields including set theory, functional analysis, quantum mechanics, ergodic theory, continuous geometry, economics, game theory, computer science, numerical analysis, hydrodynamics (as it relates to explosions) etc. etc. as well as many other mathematical fields.
He first came to my attention because of his work on a subject that has always fascinated me... the Manhattan Project. In the earliest days of development, the majority of those working on the actual process by which the fissionable material would reach super criticality believed that the only reliable method was what was referred to as a "Gun Assembly", where one sub critical mass would be fired into another to achieve super criticality. While this was reliable, it was grossly inefficient, and also not scalable.
Von Neumann was one of the mathematicians who worked on the explosive lens process, an elegant and complex solution which is more widely known as an implosion style device. This process is the one that was tested at Trinity, the worlds first man made atomic detonation, and has been at the core of every nuclear and thermo-nuclear device since. In any case, tales of von Neumann's prowess abound, and there was one that always appealed to me.
Von Neumann was once asked to solve a classic "fly puzzle"...
Two bicyclists start twenty miles apart and head toward each other, each going at a steady rate of 10 Mph. At the same time, a fly that travels at a steady 15 Mph starts from the front wheel of the southbound bicycle and flies to the front wheel of the northbound one, then turns around and the flies to the front wheel of the southbound one again, and continues in this manner till he is crushed between the two front wheels. Question: what total distance did the fly cover?
There are two ways to answer the problem. One is to calculate the distance the fly covers on each leg of its trips between the two bicycles and finally sum the infinite series so obtained. The quick way is to observe that the bicycles meet exactly an hour after they start so that the fly had just an hour for his travels; the answer must therefore be 15 miles. When the question was put to von Neumann, he solved it in an instant, and thereby disappointed the questioner...
"Oh, you mush have heard the trick before!"
"What trick" asked von Neumann, "all I did was sum the infinite series."
3 Comments | Add CommentIn Ellipsis > All, Just for fun
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Jimmy Crack Corn...
December 15, 2008 10:51 AMby Jay TedeschiJimmy Crack Corn... and I don't care. Is this thing on? Is anyone out there?
Let's try something... obviously if you are just browsing through, and not logged in, there is no way you can submit a response to this, but if you are, logged in to the MFG portal that is, take about 37 seconds out of your day and submit some feedback to this post. I am not looking for anything more extensive than just a "Here"... something like a virtual roll call. I am betting that I will get fewer than 10 responses... which is absolutely pitiful.
For gods sake, this is a community site, YOUR site, and yet you wont tell us what you want us to discuss. C'mon, prove me wrong... I dare you! [grin]
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Greetings from Battersea...
November 26, 2008 11:04 AMby Jay TedeschiGreetings everyone… no, not dead again. Is anyone detecting a trend here? Every year about this time my posts get spotty… from an occurrence standpoint, not visual, although I can certainly make this “spotty” as well. Actually, why not? You want spotty, here’s spotty…
Mmmm… Candy buttons… While searching for things with a “Spotty” theme I came across this as well…
Okay, so Sophie and her pug Percival… and she has on a spotted shawl. Cute, but quite unremarkable actually, unless you recognize the background… Battersea Power Station in the UK. Which again, may be unremarkable, unless of course you were over the age of 12 in 1977 when a little album called Animals was released by the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. In which case, you may remember seeing it more like this…
Cool huh? Okay, maybe not, but you try video editing for a week and tell me that you don’t start seeing spots!I realize that I have veered waaay off track here, but I just wanted everyone to know that I have not forgotten about you. I have simply been so busy participating in AU China and Japan, which were excellent by the way, and prepping for AU in Vegas next week that I have had little time for anything at all other than that.
Here I am presenting at AU in China… looks pretty much the same doesn’t it? The crowds were good, except for my session [grin] and everyone whom I met was very enthusiastic about having a regional specific AU again next year. Let’s face it, I know we all love Vegas but it is a bear to fly all the way from the Pacific Rim, at least that is what I have heard. I myself am fairly immune to jet lag, and am actually quite jazzed to have a 41 hour day, which is about what you end up with for a single calendar day on the return leg from a trip to the Pacific Rim.Okay, I have rambled on quite a bit here and have to stop now. Have a great holiday everyone and I promise that after AU is over next week my posts frequency and quality will return to normal. Until then, any suggestions on what I should blog about next week? [grin] -
Consumer Products...
July 20, 2008 09:11 AMby Jay TedeschiA new video posted by Technogeekgal over at YouTube…
This one highlights a variety of products that were either designed with Autodesk MSD products, had marketing materials created with Autodesk Media & Entertainment products or both.
Enjoy.
0 Comment | Add CommentIn Ellipsis > Just for fun, Images, Industry News
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Something old...
May 9, 2008 10:47 PMby Jay TedeschiSomething old… is new again! Our own Kevin Richards (aka “Rockstar”) took the Inventor mast assembly I did a few years ago and totally tricked it out with Autodesk Showcase 2009.
I always liked the “look” of this data, and it took me quite a while to get it to the point where I was satisfied with it, but Kevin definitely ramped it up a few notches. It has quite literally never looked so good.
Looking at this it is easy enough to see why we call him the rockstar. Rock on Kevin! [grin] -
Free Stuff...
February 5, 2008 12:06 PMby Jay TedeschiFree Stuff... that should catch someone's attention. Like a sign that reads "Do not read the other side of this sign..." You know that you just have to have a look at the other side right? [grin]
Anyway, back to the free stuff... We are sponsoring a contest at http://mfgcommunity.autodesk.com/contest/ . You don't have to do anything other than enter to win. That's it.
You have to win it, but if you win, it's free, except of course for the taxes that the Federal Government is probably going to require you to pay... and of course any state or local taxes as well. But other than that, it's free. [grin]
2 Comments | Add CommentIn Ellipsis > Just for fun, Links, Tips
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New rendering on YouTube
July 26, 2007 11:04 AMby Kevin SchneiderTo get back into the swing of things after hving been gone for 7 weeks, I took some time to update the speaker assembly used in the last year's AU class on plastic parts design. Here is a rendering I threw together when I was done. Enjoy!
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Off on sabbatical - WOOOO HOOO!
May 18, 2007 05:31 PMby Kevin SchneiderI'm off for 6 weeks to travel Europe on my sabbatical. I'll return and start a new round of posts after July 4th!
Until then enjoy our new 2008 releases.
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AU Class Materials
December 6, 2006 12:00 PMby Kevin Schneider
MA23-2 Autodesk Inventor® Configurations
Class Presentation
MA32-2 Plastic Parts Design with Autodesk Inventor®
Class Presentation
MA41-2 The Autodesk® Manufacturing Solution: Putting It All Together
Class Presentation Part 1 of 3
Class Presentation Part 2 of 3
Class Presentation Part 3 of 3
Log into AU Online to get the rest of the materials and the datasets.
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AU Pictures
December 1, 2006 11:45 AMby Kevin SchneiderWow what a great time!
I am so tired, but had the best time teaching, visiting and meeting all of you. I can;t wait for next year!
A sample of images from AU...
The AU Crowd
Russ Wicks record setting NASCAR
Buzz presenting at the MSD party in TAU
The Blueman Group Thursday night