ANN: Rolling graphics

[Jim Hurley]

>
>Message: 8
>Date: Thu, 12 May 2005 21:06:16 -0700
>From: Richard Gaskin <ambassador at fourthworld.com>
>Subject: Re: ANN: Rolling graphics
>To: How to use Revolution <use-revolution at lists.runrev.com>
>Message-ID: <428427B8.4030101 at fourthworld.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
>Jim Hurley wrote:
>>  To see this stack, run this from the message box:
>>
>  > go url "http://home.infostations.net/jhurley/Rolling.rev"
>>
>>  (DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK.)
>>
>>  Warning: This is of importance only to those interested in programmable
>>  graphics.
>
>And anyone who just likes a little Transcipt inspiration.
>
>Dude, that stack rocks!  Excellent!
>
>--
>   Richard Gaskin
>   Fourth World Media Corporation


Thanks Richard. Appreciate the feedback. (If anyone is interested, I 
cleaning up the code somewhat. It is a little easier to follow now.)

In the message box: go url "http://home.infostations.net/jhurley/Rolling2.rev"

Speaking of "Transcript inspiration," this work reminds me of the 
opportunity I would have had, had I had Run Rev some years back. 
(Does that sentence set a record for the number of "hads" in close 
proximity?)

I was asked by the prosecution in a jury trial to give expert 
testimony in a case of a car which had gone through a stop sign, 
leaving the road, and plunging into an embankment some distance 
across the road. The passenger will killed in the accident.

My task was to calculate the velocity with which the car had left the 
road, given the angle at the take-off point (the road was crowned) 
and the point of impact.

There was a state traffic engineer who testified as well. He assumed 
simple ballistic physics, treating the car as a point particle.

I tried to convince the jury that a car is not a point particle and 
the dynamics were quite different. As soon as the front wheels leave 
the road, leaving only the back wheels in contact, there is a torque 
on the car causing it to rotate. This would cause the car to nose 
over while in the air. (Remember the Dirty Harry movie and the chase 
scene through the streets of San Francisco? The car always comes down 
on its nose. That's the sort of thing physicists notices in a movie.) 
This significantly affected the resulting prediction of the speed at 
take-off.

Well, the jury fell asleep during my presentation of facts, figures and tables.

But if I had had Run Rev at the time I could have illustrated the car 
running off the "ski" run of the "Rolling" stack, somersaulting 
through the air and plunging into the bank. Dazzling.

Jim