By the mere count of number of essays this was a light week on my mathematics blog. Somehow everything got to be an 1,800-word essay, though, so it wasn't at all easy. You saw this if you put it on your Dreamwidth Reading page. Or if you have your RSS reader link to it all. Or if you were just waiting to see the summary of what got posted around here the past week? It was this:
- Reading the Comics, November 11, 2018: November 11, 2018 Edition
- My 2018 Mathematics A To Z: Quadratic Equation
- I’m Looking For The Last Topics For My Fall 2018 Mathematics A-To-Z
- Reading the Comics, November 16, 2018: The Rest Of The Week Edition
- My 2018 Mathematics A To Z: Randomness
- Reading the Comics, November 20, 2018: What Mathematics Is For Edition
And the big questions for the story strips this week: What's Going On In Gil Thorp? Is Tiki Jansen Academically Eligible or What? August - November 2018 plot recap here.
Content? Thought you might be. Now here's some Kennywood.
And a look way up at Kennywood's Grand Carousel, including my favorite part to glimpse, the several inches between the carousel platform and the ground underneath. The ride hangs from the top.
Close-up of the mirror and decorations and cherub heads on the carousel.
Lightning! The platform for the Thunderbolt roller coaster, with the lightning-shaped vertical stroke of the 'T' in the ride's sign slicing through the scene.
Peering through the supports of Thunderbolt at some of the maintenance and access paths beneath. Thunderbolt's at the top of a hill; its first two drops come before its lift hill.
And from inside the station: the Thunderbolt lightning bolt cuts through the view of the queue and the grassy infield of the ride.
Jackrabbit, the oldest roller coaster at Kennywood, and one of the oldest that still operates anywhere.
People reviewing the safety sign, the historical plaque, and the ride-photo featuring an elderly couple, the woman of which seems to be regretting the life choices that have led her to this ride. I mean, good on them for using a photo that isn't bland young white people smiling, but didn't they have any older riders who didn't look in pain?
Checking with the other riders to see if they got all that and agree about the sample ride photo.
Kennywood's located near the site of some important events of the French and Indian War, so it's got historical markers like this and the invitation to scan a QR code. Fun Historical Fact: nobody has ever deliberately chosen to scan a QR code.
Trivia: The engraving of a fly which Robert Hooke made for his book Micrographia, showing the wonders visible through the microscope, folded out to twelve inches by eighteen inches. Source: The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World, Edward Dolnick.
Currently Reading: The Amtrak Story, Frank N Wilner.
