MrsDrPoe: "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas"

Happy Foto Friday everyone!  Mr. Poe has a rule that we cannot decorate for Christmas or listen to Christmas music before December 1st.  As you know, today is December 2nd, so last night we continued our annual tradition of picking out a tree, eating a sackful of Krystals, and putting up the decorations while watching Elf.  Check it out:

What holiday decoration traditions do you have?

MrsDrPoe: "How Is It That You Have No Faith?"

Welcome to another Theology Thursday on the blog!  As usual, I invite you to open up your Bibles with me as we look into another portion of God's word.

One of the threads running through the book of Mark is that fear causes faith to grow or shrink.  If we look at Jesus' calming of the storm in 4:35-41, we see one particular example.  In this passage, Jesus and some of His disciples are on a boat crossing the sea of Galilee when a "great windstorm" comes up.  The disciples are frantic, thinking they are about to die while Jesus is asleep on a pillow.  (Note: Many of these men were fishermen by trade who had grown up on these waters; this must have been some storm to have seasoned seamen so shaken up.)  They wake Jesus, who calms the storm with three words and then asks, "Why are you so fearful?  How is it that you have no faith?"

We may think to ourselves, "Isn't that a little harsh?  These people left everything they had to follow Him!"  Indeed they had a great enough faith to leave their old lives; however, when their faith was tested by their fear of the storm, it failed.

This example should be an important one for us- it shows that we cannot be stagnant in our faith.  We can't assume that we have "great faith" because once several years ago we believed in the risen Savior.  If our faith isn't growing, it's shrinking.

Just like we grow in bodily strength through weight-resistance, we grow in faith through resisting temptations.  When we fear ridicule for speaking up about our faith, speaking up anyway builds our faith.  When we don't have time to read our Bibles or pray, making time anyway builds our faith.  As we continue to grow our faith through these challenges, it makes it easier to grow when more difficulties are presented.  And because we are imperfect, we should take comfort in the fact that if we do shrink in our faith at one time, through the grace of God, we can overcome the next time we are tested, just like the disciples did.

I hope these thoughts have been helpful for you, and I hope you have a blessed day!

MrsDrPoe: Turkey Panini

It's another What's for Dinner Wednesday on the blog!  For those of you who have a few turkey scraps left over, here's a great way to polish them off...Turkey Paninis.

Ingredients: turkey, bacon, crescent rolls, provolone cheese, jam, sweet potato casserole.

Cut the crescent roll in half, and spread jam on one side and sweet potato casserole on the other.  Layer turkey, bacon, and cheese on the bottom roll half:

Place the remaining half of the roll on the top of the sandwich, and put the whole thing in a panini press (or George Foreman grill or on a skillet on the stove).  Cook till cheese is melted and turkey is warm.  Enjoy!

MrsDrPoe: The Swan House

For the next Reading Review here on the blog, I present to you another work of fiction, "The Swan House" by Elizabeth Musser:

"The Swan House" is a tale of a young girl growing up in Atlanta in the early sixties, revolving around the real-life Orly plane crash, racial tension, and faith.  The book has something for everyone- romance, suspense, football*, laughter, sadness, life, death...and the list goes on and on.

I really enjoyed reading this work.  I thought it was very well written, and I greatly appreciated the Mrs. Musser's subtleties (simply saying "he cursed" instead of providing full dialog, etc.) which adequately conveyed certain character's personalities without being crude.  I also appreciated the theme that Jesus can comfort all our pains and His truth sets us free.  This story was very fascinating and really pulled me into the story. 

On a negative note, I think that the prologue and epilogue are virtually unnecessary and almost detract a bit from the main story.  I would also caution readers to examine the various forms of Christianity presented in the book in light of the Bible, as many of the ideas portrayed are not in accordance with scripture.  While it is most refreshing to read a novel that places so much emphasis on faith in Christ, we must keep in mind that Christians are to worship "in Spirit and in truth."  


All in all, I would definitely recommend reading "The Swan House" (with a box of tissues handy), and I look forward to the chance to read the sequel.

*Mr. Poe and I learned that John Heisman used to coach at Tech from this book...cool huh?

MrsDrPoe: Dimensional Analysis, Part III

Welcome to the final Thesis Tuesday on Dimensional Analysis.  As promised last week, we're going to go through an example problem today so you can see the Buckingham Pi Theorem in action.

Example: Water sloshes back and forth in a tank as shown in the figure.  The frequency of the sloshing, f, is assumed to be a function of the acceleration of gravity, g, the average depth of the water, h, and the length of the tank, l.  Develop a suitable set of dimensionless parameter for this problem using g and l as repeating variables.

Given: f = F(g, h, l)
Find: suitable set of dimensionless parameters for the given problem
Solution:

Step 1: The variables in the problem are: 

frequency, f

tank length, l

gravity, g

water height, h

Step 2: Expressing these variables in basic dimensions:

f = 1/T

l = L

g = L/(T*T)

h = L

Step 3: Determining the number of pi terms:

k = 4 (f, g, l, h) and r = 2 (L, T) so k-r = 2

Step 4: We will choose g and l as our repeating variables because the problem statement told us to; however, we could work the problem using g and h as well.  Note: we cannot use f at all because it is the dependent variable, and we cannot use both h and l because the combination of repeating variables must contain all the basic dimensions.

Step 5: We will find the first pi term:

Pi1 = f*g^(a1)*l^(b1)

(1/T)*(L/T*T)^(a1)*L^(b1) = T^(0)*L^(0)

for L to cancel: a1 + b1 = 0

for T to cancel: -1 -2*a1 = 0

So: a1 = -1/2 and b1 = 1/2

Pi1 = f*sqrt(l/g)

Step 6: We will find the second pi term:

Pi2 = h*g^(a2)*l^(b2)

(L)*(L/T*T)^(a2)*L^(b2) = T^(0)*L^(0)

for L to cancel: 1 + a2 + b2 = 0

for T to cancel: -2*a2 = 0

So: a2 = 0 and b2 =-1

Pi2 =h/l

Step 7: Since it's easy to make a mistake, we need to check the pi terms:

Pi1 = f*sqrt(l/g) = (1/T)*sqrt((L*T*T)/L) = 1

Pi2 = h/l = L/L = 1

Step 8: Next, we will write the pi term containing the dependent variable as a function of the remaining pi terms:

Pi1 = F(Pi2) or f*sqrt(l/g) = F(h/l)

Not too bad, huh?

Additional Considerations

Our variables that we deal with in this process can be classified into three broad categories: those dealing with geometry (lengths, angles), material properties (viscosity, density), or external effects (velocities, external forces).

It is important to note that there is not a unique set of pi terms that arises from a dimensional analysis; however, the required number of pi terms is fixed.

Common Non-dimensional Numbers

Reynolds Number - (rho*V*l)/mu = inertial forces/viscous forces; applicable to all types of fluid dynamics problems

Froude Number - V/sqrt(g*l) = inertial forces/gravitational forces; applicable to flow with a free surface

Euler Number - p/(rho*V*V) = pressure forces/inertial forces; applicable to problems where pressure or pressure difference are important

Mach Number - V/c = inertial forces/compressibility forces; applicable to problems where compressibility of a fluid must be considered

MrsDrPoe: Cyber Monday

Welcome to the Cyber Monday edition of Money Monday on the blog.  There are all kinds of deals available online today at every store imaginable!  You can check out some of the best deals here.

There are also some drug store freebees (no coupons required)...

CVS has free bottles of Complete contact solution,

and Wags has free cold sore treatment, lip balm, muscle rub, and foot cream.  So get out there (or stay in) and save some money!