Dave

As far as I'm aware, there's no proof saying that the quick sort (which I think is the one you're talking about) is the fastest algorithm, although I think it'd be quite hard to think of a much faster one.

Beastin' 1mbps line :-D Although I have a 30gb/mo cap NSX: I'd put a fair bet on that you weren't downloading at 2mb/sec; it's probably the program getting its knickers in a twist.

This is so good, I'm considering putting it in my sig However, the lolly roffles quote I currently have is also quite tempting. Hmm, decisions, decisions...

Doesn't matter, mike. At least you took the time to post something of an introduction. I'm also from the UK, and I'm pretty interested in robotics myself, although my main interest is maths. There's quite a few of us UK people around Nice site, btw.

Looks like we're back up again after a period of downtime. Accordingly it was something to do with the server being extortionately bogged down (hence the "server too busy" message spouted by vB). As far as I'm aware the problem's now fixed Will let blike/Sayo post later to confirm this though. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Two-faced, perhaps? And to bring this post slightly on topic, I've had my fair share of math teachers like that. Generally if they like you/think you're pretty intelligent, they'll try to get on with you (from my experience, anyway).

Yeah, I just don't seem to have the patience/vision for this sort of problem. Sorry

Yes, that too.

Okay, this is what I've come up with. Let's assume we have a perfectly cylindrical barrel with our rather snug fitting spherical slug sitting in it, of internal radius r (we don't really care about the external radius). Now lets assume we're going to start at some x position, so we might as well say 0 and the end of the barrel is xf. We also know the force exerted by the pressure of the air over this distance is going to be constant, so let's call that [math]F_p[/math]. You've said your resistive force is [math]kx^2[/math] - fair enough. So we'll just ignore gravity and have it lying flat for the time being. You can set up an equation by looking at Newton's second law: [math]m\ddot{x} = F_p - kx^2[/math] This is fairly simple to solve as long as you know that [math]\ddot{x} = v\frac{dv}{dx}[/math]. Then you just integrate both sides, noticing that your slug starts at rest. Also, to work out [math]F_p[/math], assuming your slug is spherical, you'll have to use half of the surface area of the sphere as your value for A. You need to find out your value of p also. There's also a fairly good chance I don't know what I'm talking about and/or have made a mistake since I'm very tired. I've also just noticed that the pressure in the tube obviously isn't constant, so you can ignore most of this :| Hope it helps a bit.

You need to take some values for the friction then.

Perhaps have the egg located in the nosecone of the rocket for stabilities' sake? Plus that allows for extra padding etc.

Surely an easier way to do this would be to estimate the time the force of the air acts on the projectile after you release the valve (i.e. the order of milliseconds) and then you know that: Ft = m(v-u) = mv (Impulse = change in linear momentum - that's ignoring gravity, which doesn't really matter).

Yeah, that's a bug with vB itself as far as I'm aware. The "mark this thread as read" stuff is shockingly broken in this version for some unknown reason.

Calculus won't come until A-Level. GCSE is a mix of a load of things, although I found it was quite trig and stats oriented. There's also (rather obviously) a heavy emphasis on algebra. Most of my time was spent doing bloody cumulative frequency graphs.

Think it's something to do with the reflectiveness of the material used for -RW discs that makes it hard for a normal audio CD player to read.

1) Seems sensible. 2) Probably at some point, if it exists/can be easily made.

Please refer to the thread in the announcements forum for further information on connecting to our new IRC channel. There are some beginner hints in there. To skip the spiel though, this is the connection information: Server: irc.blackcobalt.net:6667 Channel: #sfn I've made this sticky for the time being so that people read it

Hey ho people, it's that blatent IRC plug again This post is a short summary/rip of my earlier post that I made a while ago to help people get onto IRC and get all you science people chatting. There's been a bit of talk in the moderator section about this, and we've decided to use my IRC server for the time being - that is, until something better turns up. For those who know what I'm talking about, here are the connection details: Server: irc.blackcobalt.net (standard port 6667) Channel: #sfn However, for those unfamiliar to IRC, it's not all that complex. Before I say anything else, IRC stands for "Internet Relay Chat", so I think you can work out what its use is. An IRC network comprises of a number of servers that are linked together. You choose a nickname, and join one or more channels on the network to talk to other people with. It's a little more complex than that, but that's all you really need to know. The network we're on at the moment (blackcobalt.net) runs a nickname and channel management system. Basically, it enables you to register a particular nicknames and channels as being used so that other people can't steal them. It's completely optional, but I suggest if you're gonna come on there a lot, you register your nickname. So that the services know you are who you say you are, you choose a password, and identify for that nickname when you connect to the network. More on that in a minute. First, let's get you connected. If you have Windows, I suggest you go to http://www.mirc.com/ and grab yourself a copy of mIRC. This is an IRC client that will allow you to connect to a server. There are others, but this is a good one for beginners. You'll need to change a few options on there (such as choosing a nickname), but it's all fairly straightforward. There's a lot of guides out there, please have a look first! In the main server console, you can just type /server irc.blackcobalt.net to connect to the server. A little more about IRC technical stuff; to join channels and private message people, you have to use a command. Commands always begin with a "/", and can accept various parameters; they also have pretty intuitive names. For example, "/join #sfn" will make you join the channel #sfn, "/nick asdasd" will change your nickname to asdasd, and so on. (Also note that all channel names are preceeded by # - for example, #asd2, #sfn, #blackcobalt, etc). If it tells you that your nickname is in use, you'll need to change it. If you get a message from NickServ (the nickname service) that this nickname is registered, you'll need to find another nickname to use. You can change nicks with /nick <newnick> - leaving out the < and the >. When you're connected, type /join #sfn to join our channel. Services To register your nickname, type: /msg nickserv register <password> <e-mail address> (without using the < and >). To identify for a nickname when you've registered it, type: /msg nickserv identify password - obviously you need to replace "password" with the password you've chosen. If you do have any other issues, I should be around for a fair amount of time, and you can always join #blackcobalt which is our support channel. I hope you have a fun time, and PLEASE make sure you at least give it a go and spread the word. Cheers

Ah, that would be the problem then. Ignore my uselessness

Stupid thing. You can't even shove the list in the description?

Fair enough. There's a lot of seemingly abstract things in mathematics that do have applications though, so I guess it's not all for sheer interest

The very same.

I highly doubt that that was real. Especially considering the poster

Sayo: how about posting that finalized list up on the BB Code help then, so we have a definitive place for where these things are, or is this not possible?

Another suggestion would be one of Sayo's threads, which said to clear all of the cookies from your browser and kill your cache.