Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid>
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design
Subject: Re: hefty data sheet
Date: Sat, 15 Mar 2025 03:46:17 -0700
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
Lines: 41
Message-ID: <vr3lpo$3b72n$1@dont-email.me>
References: <2lb9tjpf65m1p014jnnpo9f79pc40ouh7a@4ax.com>
 <1r98d6e.1cm8ke6w2860wN%liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Injection-Date: Sat, 15 Mar 2025 11:46:17 +0100 (CET)
Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="682bb783eecf67e68f60f34ec620dcfd";
	logging-data="3513431"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org";	posting-account="U2FsdGVkX18eigBlEqCKCLK5vvo98UsX"
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:102.0) Gecko/20100101
 Thunderbird/102.2.2
Cancel-Lock: sha1:yNBbA0mEDvDNP7/ZdTKJyQhBw64=
In-Reply-To: <1r98d6e.1cm8ke6w2860wN%liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid>
Content-Language: en-US

On 3/15/2025 2:35 AM, Liz Tuddenham wrote:
> It is a small furry creature that lives behind piles of junk in garages
> and garden sheds.  Capable of incredible speed, so it is never observed,
> it grabs dropped components and hides them in inacessible places to use
> as nest-building material during the mating season.

<grin>

I had a teacher in High School who was convinced of the existence of
"gremlins" (never formally defined).  As proof, she would offer the
observation that a book of matches always *disappears* after the
first or second match is struck.  She suspected The Gremlins were
fascinated by fire and would confiscate these when no one was looking!

In one of my "systems" classes, the professor was in the habit of posing
problems like:

   The PDF for the duration of the interarrival times, in seconds, between
   successive vehicles on a rural highway is:
      f(t) = 1/12 * e^(-t/12)
   Vehicle passings are independant events. (obvious caveats apply)

   A wombat requires 12 seconds to cross the road.  If he starts his trek
   immediately after a vehicle has passed, what is the probability that
   he will survive?

   Another wombat requires 24 seconds to make the same journey.  But,
   he's a tougher sort and requires two vehicle strikes to be killed.
   If he starts out at a random time, what is the probability that he
   will survive?

   If both wombats start across the road immediately after a vehicle
   passes, what is the probability that exactly one will survive?

Of course, as with all other example problems, one assumes "wombats" are
fictitious creatures (just like Oscar and his lost dog or Al the Bookie).

Imagine my chagrin to discover that such creatures actually exist!
(and, there probably is an Oscar, somewhere, looking for his dog
just as someone named Al is likely making book!)