Rockwood: The Rockwood Mailbag.

The Rockwood Mailbag

Express yourself!

Have you always wanted to let Team Rockwood know just what you were thinking? Do you wonder why the panels of the strip are laid out horizontally instead of vertically? Or do you have sensitive documents that will bring down the government? In any case, we want to know! Just fill out your name and e-mail address, then let 'er rip! No question or comment is too bizarre for Team Rockwood to take a stab at, and if we can get enough mail coming in, this page will be updated weekly! (Unlike the old mailbag page, which got updated about four times in two years.)

So consider this an experiment in web interactivity. Or, consider it a way to artificially inflate our hit count. Either way, just write in!

Updated on March 5, 2002
		February 26, 2002 Oh, horrors! "You" look worse than Michael Jackson after all his (or is it "its"?) plastic surgery! Thanks for letting us know what you think you look like... --James
		Well, maybe Lundmark isn't quite that bad off, James. If you really want to see some pictures, check out the Rockwood 2002 Olympic Watch, which now has pictures of Brian. We should note, however, that even though some of them look fake, they are completely real. Really, this time. We swear.
		February 26, 2002 Perhaps are you related to say, every math teacher I ever had? I calculated the scores and Issac got the most right at 2.25 out of 3 or .75 (75%). Franz and me both got 1.75 of 3 or .5833333.... (58%). So Franz and me failed your class and Issac passed. Though I bet your gonna deduct points for not showing my work this time right? --David P.
		David, all of this would be true, except you've neglected to add in the very generous Team Rockwood curve. We add an extra 33 points to anyone who turns in their work on time, meaning you and Franz both get an "A" with a 91, and Isaac, well, he's the teacher's pet with a whopping 108. All of the rest of you get a big fat "F" for not even attempting the problems (and you know who you are)! Looks like some of you are going to have to stay an extra year. We suggest you call your student loan officers now.
		February 27, 2002 Liked your views on what is a "sport". A few years back, my friend Eric came up with objective criteria for what is (not) a sport as opposed to a game or athletic endeavor: 1. Cannot be held via closed circuit TV (i.e. all participants MUST be in the same venue -- this eliminates things like rhythmic gymnastics) 2. Must be able to carry your equipment (eliminates horse racing) 3. The most dominant athlete cannot be a 13 year old girl (I just hate the stories about the "washed-up old" gymnasts who are freshmen in college) Anyhow, great work on the Olympic coverage and Rockwood. --Dale
		Geez, we've opened a can of worms here. We could argue what is a sport or what isn't a sport, there are a million of you out there with a million different opinions. We're not going to argue with each one of you separately. However, since it was the Olympics that kicked this whole debate off, let's again just leave it at this: The event is the Olympic Games, not the Olympic Sports. If you have a few hundred million to spend on making your own international contest, you can have any events in it you want. That's all we're going to say.
		February 27, 2002 Correction: the AVERAGE normal body temp is 98.6*F Your question can't be answered unless you know her specific normal body temp. ('course being a frog, it's probably lower than the average and makes the point moot, but I had to add my $.02 anyway) --Holly
		Ahh... we knew that question would bring the nitpickers out! Yes, Holly is correct. The average normal body temperature had to be assumed to be 98.6 for the question to work correctly. We would have included it, but a comic strip only has so much space to work with. But interestingly enough, that average only works with the French and the Americans. The British claim the average temperature is 98.4. Although, to be even more exact, it could be argued that since the woman in the problem was a judge-- thus potentially a lawyer-- she was probably cold-blooded and therefore the same temperature as the snow she was buried in.
		February 28, 2002 Ah, now you are doing the figure skating problem the longer way around. The most direct route: 2 sec per rotation: w = pi rad/ sec (2pi rad / 2 sec) centripetal accel: ac = w^2 r ac = pi^2 * 2m = 19.7392 (not that I can use that many sig figs, but I'll let that slide) F = m * ac = 45 kg * 19.7392 m/s^2 F = 888.264 N Btw, I teach physics (some use for my aerospace engineering degree huh?) and love the strip. Keep up the excellent work. Also, would you mind if I use some of your word problems on my tests? And no, I'm not kidding! They're great problems! -Ken DeNisco
		Ken, if only you had turned in your work on time you wouldn't have to come back next semester! You're right, of course, although to be honest, we don't see that your method is a whole lot shorter than the one we posted at first, maybe just a little more elegant. However, here at Team Rockwood we'd be thrilled to see that the youth of America are being twisted to our way of thinking about math. We've always thought that if we couldn't dominate the world through cartooning, then perhaps we could be the Bill Nye of math. Just think of the kind of ratings that a show dedicated to math could pull in! No? Okay then, think about how much money a movie about math could pull in! Still not buying it? Fine. Well, as long as a movie about math can attract what's important, who cares what you think?
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