Diameter?

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How do you work out the radius of a satellite dish when all you know is its diameter? That was the strange question I tried to answer on twitter last night.

First of all I had to remember my school girl maths from fifty years ago.

I remembered the diameter if found with the formula 2 pi r. Where pi is 22/7. I couldn’t remember the decimal version and I wasn’t using a calculator so I divided 7 into 22 and got 3.142. Then r is the radius, which is half of 70=35.

So then I had to multiply (on paper again) 2 Xx 3.142= 6.284. And multiply that by 35. As my multiplication is not good I added 3 lots of 62.84 together = 188.52, then added 6.284 together five times = 31.41 (yes it’s long winded but accurate). Add the two figures together and you get 219.93.

I don’t know BODMAS or PODMAS or whatever they are called. But I actually got it right. Not to bad for an oldie!

PS the formula for area is pi r squared. Not going there!

Broken glass

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Three local teenagers walked past our house today shouting and swearing. I heard a crash of breaking glass so looked out of the front door and saw this. I shouted at them that I would call their headmaster because I recognised their uniforms. I did ring and leave a message for the school. I doubt that they will be able to do much. However it’s the principal of the thing (no pun intended). I know that children want to have fun. But smashing things is not acceptable behaviour. It’s disturbing to think what they could do next.

Sweet cat

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He’s getting older, I watch him daily. He’s getting older, but he can still be kittenish. A quick mrpurr and then a dash across the room. But he likes to sleep. His heart is old, beats slowly. I hope he will stay a few years longer. Happy and contented.

Yesterday I watched a YouTube video of a man saying farewell to his much loved cat. He lay on the floor, strolling the cats nose and cheeks gently. You could see his tears. I remember the times I have had to say goodbye too.

So much sadness in the world today. Farewells are mounting up. Let there be love and peace for a change. X

Connection

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We saw an airbase within 15 miles of the Polish border hit by cruise missiles today. Eighty one people were killed. Putin Russian madness continues.

Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was connection so I drew our connection with family. I’ve created an imagined bracelet. The family at the bottom is connected too. Like a paper chain. I’ve used Ukraine flag colours. It’s meant to show a connection of countries supporting them.

St George and the Dragon

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Detail of a dragon wounded by St George. Held on a line by a Princess it had captured. In this oil on canvas by Paolo Uccello, painted around 1460, the dragon, a mythical beast has been challenged after capturing a towns people including the Kings daughter.

As I’m doing my report I am noticing different things. In this case, the dragon only has two legs, and its leathery wings have white circles on them like a butterfly or moth. The long curling tail seems to balance its head and body. This dragon is more birdlike than serpentine. It could also resemble a dinosaur, perhaps a pterodactyl even though Uccello would probably not have seen fossilised bones. But in one of those strange coincidences this could be a type of evolution. An artist expressing a current idea that will eventually change to more modern forms of dragon.

Dragon illustrations

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Image from a book of beasts and monsters

For my final college report I’m looking at the history of the depictions of dragons (OK very niche). I’m trying to understand how they were illustrated and how they change across the world. I’ve found out Korean dragons have five toes, Chinese four or five and Japanese three toes. They have different shapes. They go from serpentine to with two or four legs. No wings or wings. Some are fire-breathing. They may be mythical but they seem to evolve.