Monday, April 19, 2004

Trains….

Trains....

As I was reading this story Trains Collide I kept thinking of those math problems in 3rd grade and I got to thinking... Do they let you run trains if you can't solve those story problems? Just for fun - why not try one? From algrabra.com

1) At the same moment, two trains leave Chicago and New York. They move towards each other with constant speeds. The train from Chicago is moving at speed of 40 miles per hour, and the train from New York is moving at speed of 60 miles per hour. The distance between Chicago and New York is 1000 miles. How long after their departure will they meet?

2) A freight train leaves a station traveling at 30 mph. A passenger train leaves 1 hour later traveling at 50 mph. how long until the passenger train overtakes the freight train?

Seeing how easy these are (they are aren't they? If not, PLEASE PLEASE do not get a job having anything to do with trains, or schedules, better just stick with what you are doing now...and hopefully it doesn't involve story problems of any kind) it really makes me wonder about the people who are in charge of this stuff. I do know that the people who direct the trains in Washington are somewhere in Texas. Every time we would stop and wait for a signal to change, and it happened so often we just got tired of complaining, I could just see some guy in Texas with this big lit up board in front of him watching little dotted lines go all over the country. But I never really thought about the story problems... now I am really glad I don't ride the train anymore...

Let's see...

In other news I was introduced to the music of Nellie McKay this past week. I really like her! She reminds me of so many other song writers... only with a little kick and attitude. I've been listening to her all weekend... smile

I'm on to the "decorating" phase of moving into my apartment. It has taken me awhile to move into this phase. I haven't really felt settled... and I have to feel settled in order to start hanging things up. But - I finally put my first nail in the wall! Hung the first painting in the living room and I am off! Well... kind of. I really don't know where things should go. As far as the overall vision is concerned I'm really not that great at decorating. I do the little touches really well. And I am good at making a place mine... but the "vision" isn't there for me. I try, but it never feels right. Guess that is a good reason to keep my mom around. She has great vision!

Speaking of mom... I helped her clean her attic this weekend. Whoa. What a chore. And we thought we were done and were arranging things and found 4 more boxes we hadn't even touched! We could spend two more days up there going through stuff, sorting and throwing out junk that we kept for no good reason. And I do mean "we" because I have a fair amount of stuff in her attic. I found stuff I didn't even know I had! Didn't even know I wanted! Like my Charmkins collection. And holy crap! They are on ebay and actually selling this stuff! Huh....

Oh... you probably want the answers to the math problems...
1) 10 hours
2) 1.5

Hope you had fun!!!


Posted by Autumn Goddess on 04/19 at 11:35 AM
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