Infinite Resistor Problem - Confirmation

[OutsideObserver]

It would be, and you can bet I'd sell tickets (at $2/minute.) And
hotdogs, meals, and probably rooms for the week-long extravaganza,
because I wouldn't be done in a single day.

If enough folks want to pony up $5k/wk for this wonderful event, be
sure to write. I'll include transportation to and from the airport,
the option of either A-frame housing or separate rooms with their own
bathrooms, commercial kitchen services and food, horse riding, evening
hand gun, rifle, and automatic weapons practice with my picture on
every target, and wall sized video monitors to watch me solder 0201
resistors with a Weller D550 soldering gun using pieces from a rounded
hanger wire as a tip. If I survive the abuse, I'll personally sign
certificates of completion, too.

If this 'entertainment' catches on, I'll make it a yearly event!

Jon

P.S. Actually, I'm already working on providing regular retreats not
unlike this -- four times a year is the current goal. Very soon, I
hope to see. Different function, of course. But I'm adaptable when
the price is right.

Ball Industries? Is making IC chips that are on a spherical shaped
die?


Anyway. Make a ball shaped array. Build layer after layer with tines
connecting the proper inner nodes together with higher layers.

Hell, just drawing it in CAD would be fun, and challenging.

I'd say 0805 has the right size and strength for it, as far as
terminations go.

I wonder how easy it would be to configure a quad array into a
multi-layered spheroid.

Not much different then the guy wanting to put it on a cylinder.

A LOT more fun to draw. Screw electronic layout packages. This is a
job for regular old CAD.

Let's see... toothpicks for skeletal needs as the layers grow... super
glue... solder, small, tfe coated hook up wire.

Naaaaah!

 

[Jon Kirwan]

Confirmation of the solution for the infinite resistor grid puzzle is in my
latest blog, link below.
Much more fun than writing a program...

Dave.

By the way, for those wondering if there is a practical application
for the infinite resistor grid problem, there is this patent:

6836783

Which claims ownership over using a crossbar on a 2D resistor grid as
an analog computer solving a range of commonly found finite different
method problems.

Jon

 

[Jon Kirwan]

By the way, for those wondering if there is a practical application
for the infinite resistor grid problem, there is this patent:

6836783

Which claims ownership over using a crossbar on a 2D resistor grid as
an analog computer solving a range of commonly found finite different
method problems.

Jon

Oh, shit. Now that I read it, the damned patent writer didn't even
get their equations right.

Oh, well. I guess that invalidates the whole thing.

Jon

 

[Jon Kirwan]

finite different method

"finite difference method"

Jon

 

[Jon Kirwan]

Please note that anyone can patent almost anything if they have the
money;

Enough to wine and dine the examiner and pay the $50k/mo patent atty
fees, yes.

the item does not have to be practical,

The patent law specifies that the subject matter must be "useful."
The term "useful" in this connection refers to the condition that
the subject matter has a useful purpose and also includes
operativeness, that is, a machine which will not operate to
perform the intended purpose would not be called useful, and
therefore would not be granted a patent. In most cases, the
usefulness requirement is easily met in computer and electronic
technologies.

Whatever all that means. Sounds like "practical" but I take your
point, anyway.

it does not have to be workable,

See above note.

nor does it have to be buildable.

See above note.

And the "explanation" does not have to be reasonable.

hehe. That seems to be the case, often enough.

Also, a patent is "good" until it either expires or some court has
invalidated it.

This, I know. Once issued.

Hell, if you were clever enough in the write-up, you could patent the
paper clip...

Hmm... The wheel would be more profitable to me, if I'm going to go
bother enough to be clever about it.

Jon

P.S.
I've already watched the process of one company patenting all uses of
a binary search for temperature lookup tables by software in cpus used
in instrumentation. That patent was preceded by other such uses for
exactly that purpose and wasn't the least bit novel and was besides
the obvious approach to be taken by any practitioner looking at that
problem. Yet it was issued. Competitors of that company use binary
searches in their products (I don't think any publicize it) and the
company doesn't bother suing them, either. Everyone just acts like it
doesn't exist. It's all Alice in Wonderland stuff to me.

 

[Mycelium]

I like that, if they'll self-seat okay.

Jon

You make four rounded corner rectangles. That makes the standard surface
tension self seating mode (but you knew that). Then you have to come up
with a way to connect those together. On a single layer, you will have
to make a ring that connects between the short side of the rectangles.
Ifyou are using more than one layer, you probably know what to do.

Or, if you really do want to Siamese them all together, it would look
like a clover where the leaflets are just far enough from each other not
to break a very low voltage rule.

I would also use like ten ohm resistors instead of 1 ohm, because your
results should have a bit more precision if you match and cull your stock
well enough. (I guess the same can be said for the 1 ohm set, but for
some reason I think ten would be easier to work with the results of, and
easier to match).That doesn't mean that it would be any different though.

It would work with a non-rotated grid as well.

 

[Archimedes' Lever]

By the way, for those wondering if there is a practical application
for the infinite resistor grid problem, there is this patent:

6836783

Which claims ownership over using a crossbar on a 2D resistor grid as
an analog computer solving a range of commonly found finite different
method problems.

Jon

Probably expired.

 

[Archimedes' Lever]

"finite difference method"

Jon

I see a small differentiation.

 

[Jon Kirwan]

Probably expired.

Why do you say so?

Jon

 

[Jon Kirwan]

I have seen patents that "met" all of the disqualifications i cited'
"patent law" be damned.
On another note, i saw two patents, sequential serial numbers that
covered the SAME THING and worded almost exactly the same way -
different authors and art units.

So why is the elephant still in the room? Is this some kind of
Emperor who runs around naked and no one dares point it out or admit
it?

I'm just flummoxed.

Jon

 

[Mycelium]

Maybe 100K 0.5% SMT resistors would be better?

I do not know. It depends on what instruments will be doing the real
test reading, and what readings are going to be taken and at what
excitation levels.

The precision is to emulate an ideal circuit as closely as possible.
That way, the readings can be counted on as representative or closely so,
to the ideal circuit.

I really do not know if a high resistance value resistor can be trimmed
tighter, or if the low value job is sufficient.

Either way, matching them, and culling out the extreme variants would
be recommended.

I guess pumping a known voltage and taking current readings would yield
the best the best data. I just do not trust ohm meter readings as being
tightly toleranced compared to a good current reading.

Pulse testing would probably be best so that no heating of the parts
happens. Then again, a dielectric fluid immersion would probably be the
way to go for temp stability.

 

[Mycelium]

I'm just flummoxed.

How is that working out for you? And the wife?

 

[Jon Kirwan]

How is that working out for you? And the wife?

About as well as might be expected. We've been continual best friends
since before I can remember anything as a young child; being flummoxed
about patents came long after and I didn't notice any change then; so
I guess it mustn't be all that important to us.

And with you?

Jon

 

[Mycelium]

About as well as might be expected. We've been continual best friends
since before I can remember anything as a young child; being flummoxed
about patents came long after and I didn't notice any change then; so
I guess it mustn't be all that important to us.

And with you?

Jon

I still have to figure out what having been or being in the process of
being flummoxed is...

 

[Jon Kirwan]

I still have to figure out what having been or being in the process of
being flummoxed is...

flummox (flùm´eks) verb, transitive
flummoxed, flummoxing, flummoxes
Informal.

To confuse; perplex.

[Probably of English dialectal origin.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Third
Edition copyright © 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Electronic
version licensed from InfoSoft International, Inc. All rights
reserved.

 

[Jon Kirwan]

I still have to figure out what having been or being in the process of
being flummoxed is...

flummox (flùm´eks) verb, transitive
flummoxed, flummoxing, flummoxes
Informal.

To confuse; perplex.

[Probably of English dialectal origin.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Third
Edition copyright © 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Electronic
version licensed from InfoSoft International, Inc. All rights
reserved.

Hehe. This was also quick to come up:

Example sentence:
Peter was flummoxed by the directions given to him by the
gas station attendant, as they called for him to turn the wrong
way onto a one-way street.

Did you know?
No one is completely sure where the word "flummox" comes
from, but we do know that its first known use in English is
found in Charles Dickens' 1837 novel _The Pickwick Papers_. One
theory expressed by some etymologists is that it was influenced
by "flummock," a word of English dialectical origin used to
refer to a clumsy person (and perhaps this word is the source
of "lummox" as well). By no means is "flummox" just a relic of
the Victorian era -- by the end of the 19th century the word had
become quite common in both British and American English.

 

[Mycelium]

I still have to figure out what having been or being in the process of
being flummoxed is...

flummox (flùm´eks) verb, transitive
flummoxed, flummoxing, flummoxes
Informal.

To confuse; perplex.

[Probably of English dialectal origin.]

1837 Probably British. It doesn't sound like a word an American would
have made up.

So when you say "English" regarding etymology, you should probably be a
bit more specific.

 

[Mycelium]

by the end of the 19th century the word had
become quite common in both British and American English.

But only remained in British usage in the 20th century.

 

[Jon Kirwan]

But only remained in British usage in the 20th century.

Hehe. Okay, so I picked it up from some British friends.

Jon

 

[Jon Kirwan]

On Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:44:57 -0700, Mycelium

I'm just flummoxed.

How is that working out for you? And the wife?

About as well as might be expected. We've been continual best friends
since before I can remember anything as a young child; being flummoxed
about patents came long after and I didn't notice any change then; so
I guess it mustn't be all that important to us.

And with you?

Jon

I still have to figure out what having been or being in the process of
being flummoxed is...

flummox (flùm´eks) verb, transitive
flummoxed, flummoxing, flummoxes
Informal.

To confuse; perplex.

[Probably of English dialectal origin.]

1837 Probably British. It doesn't sound like a word an American would
have made up.

So when you say "English" regarding etymology, you should probably be a
bit more specific.

Actually, everything I posted there was quoted from a book. Including
the bracketed part. I had hoped the copyright notice at the end told
you as much. I guess that didn't come across. Anyway, you will
probably need to complain to Houghton Mifflin about their notes if you
want them changed.

Since you wrote as though those were my words, I'll tell you what I
actually imagine. I suspect that it comes from flummery and oxen and
that it is obviously also related to lummox. Flummery was (the word
has grown) custard or pudding -like and I suspect that someone came up
with a word that conjured up both a pudding-head and clumsy-as-an-ox
in one word, shortening the flummery to flum(m) as an adjective to ox.
Probably no one misunderstood the connotations.

Of course, I'm just guessing.

Jon