Practical Academic Values

[davidktw]

Again I have wrote something I thought is important for anyone would like to know what is the pragmatic academic values one should be having as a person, especially for a technological student or professional working his or her way up the ladder

I may sound "haolian" to some people here because I like to share my opinions on stuffs. If you feel so, feel free not to read what is following in this post. I don't need to explain myself more on how opinions should be shared mainly because those that listen will learn something that I could share and those thinks they are better in their opinions will either be successful if they are right or otherwise hit the wall, who knows.

In the thread found at http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/e...rs-who-dont-know-what-pointer-4880455-11.html, the discussion move into an area where posters are debating on some subjects and it comes across that a couple of so feels academic values from the knowledge doesn't work well with their way of life, so here I post a challenge but yet, not a lot can even come up with a real feasible and easily executable solution. So it really spell out loudly on how some knowledge found in an elementary school seems so difficult to people that graduated from tertiary education that teach high level knowledge, but doesn't seems to emphasise on the importance of simple primary knowledge.

Below is the challenge posed




CHALLENGE:

Show us how you are going to draw a 100x100 (METERS) SQUARE in the middle of a large park that is not regularly shaped.

I have the actual use case to show how you think you may be knowledgeable in high level learning, but failed to engineer something so simple.

PS: middle is not dead centre, just somewhere inside the park good enough for the square to form will do.




















FULL SOLUTION BELOW

THEORY REQUIRED:

pythagoras theorem

MATERIALS ?

1) 4x plastic pegs that can pin into the field or anything you can find to fix to the ground
2) 1x nylon string of at least 400m long
3) 1x tape ruler (mine is at most 7m long)
4) calculator (google search engine also can)
5) 1x roll black adhesive tape (strong tape will do)

TECHNIQUE

1) Choose the centre of the square you would like to have on the ground.
2) Unroll 50m worth of nylon rope, measure using your tape ruler. You can always pin 2 plastic peg on the ground of roughly 5m and lay down the rope straight from one point to another. Not necessarily faster though unless you have 2 person at it
3) tape one end to the peg and pull out 50m. That will roughly with the middle of one end.
4) Make a rough 90 deg, no need exact and pull another 50m down and that will be one of the corner

Anything from now on MUST BE as accurate as possible to produce a SQUARE (measure the nylon tape with your tape ruler)
5) Unroll 100m worth of nylon, pull a straight line to another end, put a plastic peg down. This 2 pegs now form 1 side of the SQUARE.
6) Using pythagoras theorem, you will know if you want to form a right angle triangle(without one of the 100m side), you will need a total of 141.42m + 100m = 241.42m. You can safely rough off to 241.5m since for a 100m square, the error will be marginal
7) Mark on the rope a distance of 100m from one of the end with a black tape
8) Tape one end of the rope to one of the peg and the other end to the other peg
9) Pull the nylon taut but do not do it forcefully because the nylon rope will stretch, just firm taut will do. This will form a triangle shape but not yet a right angle
10) As you are holding on to the taut rope, use your finger and hold on to the marked black tape point which is 100m from one end. lay down on the ground with the rope fully taut and firm. That is the 3rd corner of the square
11) Find out another 100m from the other end now and repeat the process (10) and you will find the 4th corner.
12) Now you can use the whole rope and trace firmly across the 4 corners and you will definitely get a square

Below is real pictures of me creating a 12m x 12m square in the middle of the Dhoby Ghaut Green Park.

Materials required

4 pegs saw off from a plastic pipe

Panoramic view of the square (looks curve because iPhone doesn't produce rectilinear images)

This is a HDR view of the actual scene as you can see the lines are straight

You feel my solution and practical exercise is difficult and you have a better solution to really get a square on the real ground on site. I'm glad for you.

Why am I doing this real exercise ? What is the real application.

I am given a task to create a 3D model using 3D studio Max, and I need to superimpose the model into the real scene. Below is a sample of what I am trying to achieve

What is the square for ? It's for using a feature called perspective matching in superimposing of virtual objects into a real world scene. You want to know more, go learn it from Matching the Environment - Part 1 - Perspective Matching - YouTube

I am not going to show you the actual work I have done since I would like to protect the works of another party.

Some posters say this is "haolian". My response to them is if you feel is "haolian", can you do better than me on this ? If you can, then go do it. If you can't and you just want to blabber away like a keyboard warrior, save it, it doesn't impress me.

Why am I showing this ? That's because there are people in this thread that want to show how their thought process is better, making claims that academic values are less important and there is no need to put so much focus in it. If you feel your practical knowledge is so powerful, why can't you exercise such simple task in the real world using theory that even secondary school students knows ?

Which thing that you are using today didn't come from theory and academic value ? You mean the LED/LCD screen that you are using today came from a mistake made by mad scientist without a single academic paper written on the theory on what drives the electron through the materials ? You mean the kind of materials you are using today all drop from the sky or the scientist went into the lab without a slightest idea that in the next few hours, they will discover LED and LCD magically ? So who is really the "haolian" one here ? The one think that academic values is only for research and won't make sense in real world application, or me who can show you real world application of simple secondary elementary math and hardwork and sweating in the field ?

And all these for what purpose ? For a real world superimposition of a virtual 3D model, back to computer science and related topics.

If you think knowledge that you need to acquire now must be because there must be an application that you can see now, I'm afraid you wouldn't even knows the simple theory to perform more in life. That is saddest kind of impression I'm getting from a degree holder, diploma holder and PSLE graduate.

You have no idea what you are learning at any stage of your life, that's why the whole life is always an educational exercise. You never stop learning and you shouldn't. There is nothing call differences between academic and practical. You know how to apply your knowledge, you learn something, you want to wait till the event arrive and then go learn something, you are forever a loser always have to sniff the backside of the one in front of you.

So what should you learn and what should you not learn ?

My sincere answer for you ? "LEARN EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN"

Why must there be a line drawn between what should be learn and what should not be ? Just because you are a programmer and you shouldn't learn art and photography ? Just because you are an art teacher means you can't learn how to program to make your excel sheet more automated ?

Do all those play with stock markets end up as exchange brokers or must they be working in the bank ? What is wealth to you ? You go figure it out. You are trying so hard to get something done, have it occur to you that if you have that knowledge before you are even at this junction now, it would have solve your problem.

It's called Connecting the dots backwards. You can't see right now where you are going to be in the future, because it is not written. Even if it is, by quantum theory, you are in this time and space right now and we have not discover how to move forward without you getting out of your dimension right now. So please stick with the norm until you die or until new theories becomes facts.

That's all I have to offer as reminder to your search of knowledge. You can be a dumbest person on earth if you have the knowledge to make your world a better place, but you will be the loser on earth if you have the best knowledge but don't know how to apply it.

 

[Azzizz81]

My proposed solution:

1. Place a laserpointer on tripod in the centre of the ground.
2. Wait til it's dark, mark out the 4 corners of the square using the laser pointer. U need pythagoras theoream, a protracter and 4 pegs. May need additional tools to measure levelness etc
3. Cut out 4x100m tape and lay them peg to peg
4. Sanity check by connecting the diagonally opposite corners with 2 tapes of length 141.42m

 

[davidktw]

My proposed solution:

1. Place a laserpointer on tripod in the centre of the ground.
2. Wait til it's dark, mark out the 4 corners of the square using the laser pointer. U need pythagoras theoream, a protracter and 4 pegs. May need additional tools to measure levelness etc
3. Cut out 4x100m tape and lay them peg to peg
4. Sanity check by connecting the diagonally opposite corners with 2 tapes of length 141.42m

Your proposed solution should works but actually quite hard as you have identify it yourself. Most grounds are not level actually. Unless your laser pointer is pointing at least 45 deg that means you need to easily 50m up in the air. At merely 2m max from the ground, an inclining ground will easily introduce error in meters across 50m - 100m.

I don't think a protractor can help much though. But in any case, you did get the essence of the issue resolve. The tools doesn't really matter, it's the way how thoughts are formulated which started off as academic values only. Who in the right mind would think they will be using pythagoras theorem to do something in the future of decades down the road when they are taught that piece of knowledge.

This exactly pointed out that regardless of what knowledge, even for simple things like pointers, should be learnt whether you need it now or not.

The issue is never about SQUARES

 

[Azzizz81]

Each person has to decide what is important for him to know. The complexity of techonology/businesses/policies makes it impossible for anyone to know everything in his professional domain, I feel it is more important for the person to be enterprising, resourceful and have the right network, rather than having a huge trove of knowledge.
He should have the ability to learn, unlearn and relearn.

Acquiring knowledge is a good thing, but it also comes at a cost. The cost can be time, money, relationships, etc.... Of course, knowledge is still important, but not all knowledge is useful in all places at all times. Hence each person still has to make that judgement call to decide how to allocate his finite resources in the pursuit of knowledge.

 

[davidktw]

Each person has to decide what is important for him to know. The complexity of techonology/businesses/policies makes it impossible for anyone to know everything in his professional domain, I feel it is more important for the person to be enterprising, resourceful and have the right network, rather than having a huge trove of knowledge.
He should have the ability to learn, unlearn and relearn.

Acquiring knowledge is a good thing, but it also comes at a cost. The cost can be time, money, relationships, etc.... Of course, knowledge is still important, but not all knowledge is useful in all places at all times. Hence each person still has to make that judgement call to decide how to allocate his finite resources in the pursuit of knowledge.

Of course, having life is finite and time isn't, we always need to make judgement at numerous points in life on what is important and what is not. Outside of work and study, there are a lot more about life itself that we all need to acquire knowledge and execute.

You are right to have mentioned about the need to be enterprising and resourceful and having proper network skill set. I'm also fully agreeable to the ability to adapt spontaneously on the relearning of any new knowledge even if it will to mean break an existing fact or rule or defined law.

The rule of thumb is not to be biased against what knowledge is to be acquired because you can't measure easily. More likely I discover is the depth of the knowledge that one need to move into as a measurement. There is a big difference between I know something. but not very good at it, but I want to know more versus I don't think I need such knowledge since I don't find it useful at the moment and I can't see myself using it in the future.

I think there is a real need to be functional with vast knowledge, as much as one could acquired with reasonable balance and also the skill to offload wisely.

 

[Azzizz81]

Yep, don't pigeonhole yourself!

 

[KnightNiwrem]

Your proposed solution should works but actually quite hard as you have identify it yourself. Most grounds are not level actually. Unless your laser pointer is pointing at least 45 deg that means you need to easily 50m up in the air. At merely 2m max from the ground, an inclining ground will easily introduce error in meters across 50m - 100m.

Actually, that is an interesting consideration. Suppose the 100x100 square is to be drawn around a steep hill (because this hypothetical hill is the hypothetical park itself).

The nylon pythagoras method will not work in this case. Where the perimeter is drawn around the base of the hill, the centre of the square, of which the diagonal much pass through, goes up and down the hill, resulting in increased distance. In this case, we can no longer ensure that the square is 100x100 to any fair level of accuracy.

 

[davidktw]

Actually, that is an interesting consideration. Suppose the 100x100 square is to be drawn around a steep hill (because this hypothetical hill is the hypothetical park itself).

The nylon pythagoras method will not work in this case. Where the perimeter is drawn around the base of the hill, the centre of the square, of which the diagonal much pass through, goes up and down the hill, resulting in increased distance. In this case, we can no longer ensure that the square is 100x100 to any fair level of accuracy.

Sure. I think we can always find tons of scenarios where the nylon solution doesn't work. I don't think I have advertise from the start of the day that it is the silver bullet to all scenarios. That's why we are alive and we change the necessary strategy to make things work. Did my response answer you on how to approach problem ?

I would quote Azzizz81 - "Yep, don't pigeonhole yourself!"

 

[KnightNiwrem]

Sure. I think we can always find tons of scenarios where the nylon solution doesn't work. I don't think I have advertise from the start of the day that it is the silver bullet to all scenarios. That's why we are alive and we change the necessary strategy to make things work. Did my response answer you on how to approach problem ?

I would quote Azzizz81 - "Yep, don't pigeonhole yourself!"

Mmhmm. I didn't think you advertised as such either. It was just interesting to note that most of the solutions proposed in this thread, and the EDMW thread would fail on uneven ground.

Thinking about how to go about this is quite intellectually interesting.

 

[davidktw]

Mmhmm. I didn't think you advertised as such either. It was just interesting to note that most of the solutions proposed in this thread, and the EDMW thread would fail on uneven ground.

Thinking about how to go about this is quite intellectually interesting.

Good you want to have a deeper thought on the matter. The SQUARE to me is just partial to what I have achieved, and since it has worked properly for me at the given circumstances, I have gave it a rest.

Feel free to probe on it further if it interest you. In any case, the matter is never about the Square, it's always about the love and persistence to acquire knowledge. That's all this debate is about.

 

[commach]

I wasn't aware of this thread till now, my reply in EDMW on the creation of the 100m square was purely coincidence based on job requirement/experiences.

Nice info.