Post by medic0079 on Jul 6, 2010 7:31:23 GMT -5
So about a weekish ago my District chief sent me an e-mail about a new crisis. Apparently someone came up with a flag to pole ratio chart, and despite our current "budget crisis" where they are threatening our jobs its time to order new flags.
I think this is a classic example of the old
We have been doing so much for so long with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing.....
Here is a transcript of the e-mails.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Dan Shaeffer
Sent: Monday, June 14, 2010 2:56 PM
To: Andy Carlisle; Ed Kennedy; Harold Theus; Jeff Harpe; Joe Cox; Larry Stewart
Subject: Flag size crisis
Apparently we face a new crisis; the standard flag that has been issued by CSW is no longer adequate. If you could please encourage your station officers to measure the station flag pole so that the proper flag dimension can be ordered. After we have heard from all stations we will begin repurchasing new pole ratio sized flags.
Thank you
Flag Pole to Flag Size Ratio
Pole Height
Flag Size
15
3x5'
20
3x5'
25
4x6'
30
5x8'
35
6x10'
40
6x10'
45
8x12'
50
10x15'
55
10x15'
60
10x15'
65
12x18'
70
12x18'
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------From: Andy Carlisle
Sent: Friday, July 02, 2010 9:17 PM
To: Alex Porgesz; David M. Hamilton; Donvovan Jones; David Walters; Drew Dabney; James Elmore; Noah D. Visel; Patrick Morris; Randy Jeter; Ryan C. Lowery; Robert Chapman; Ray Wolf
Subject: FW: Flag size crisis
I'm sure this has already been done in my absence. Thanks
Andrew Carlisle
District Chief
Alachua Co. Fire/Rescue
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Noah D. Visel
Sent: Saturday, July 03, 2010 9:17 AM
To: Andy Carlisle
Subject: RE: Flag size crisis
I would estimate our flag pole @ 25 feet. I did not however have a means to measure the flag pole. Neither a large enough ladder, nor a long enough measuring tape has been issued to the station, so given the equipment this initially seemed an impossible problem. then I thought about the problem a little longer and came up with this.
Length BO is difficult to get to and measure as there is a row of bushes around the flagpole making my pacing style of measurement difficult, trying to hop over the bushes.
This is a trigonometry problem, and while most paramedics encounter
trigonometry in the context of right triangles, we can also apply it
to general triangles as well:
F. FOA is a right triangle.
| . . The point O is inaccessible.
| . . We want to compute the height OF.
| . . We measure the distance BA and the
| . . angles of elevation OBF and OAF.
| . .
X-O-X--------B-------A
The triangle of interest is FAB. We have measured two angles of this
triangle: angle A (measured elevation from A), angle B (equal to 180
deg - elevation from B), and angle F (180 deg - A - B).
Using the Law of Sines, we can write
dist(BA) dist(FA)
------- = ------- this allows us to calculate the
sin(F) sin(B) distance FA.
And then we apply trigonometry to the right triangle FOA:
dist(FO) = dist(FA)*sin(A),
where our final answer is expressed in terms of quantities that we
have either measured directly or have computed from our measurements.
One could carry out the angle measurements either by using a sighting
instrument (such as a straw taped to a protractor with a weight
suspended from the origin), or by marking the location of the flagpole
shadow at the precise time that one measures the length of a shadow of
some shorter object such as a yardstick, or in my case a ruler I found in the station from an old pub ed. The shorter object gives us
information about the slope of the sun's rays via the arctangent.
The height is actually not 100% correct, again lacking the adequate means to measure long distances I had to pace the length of the flagpole shadow, nor did I have a level to ensure that the ruler was exactly level with the ground. however based on this simple mathematical formula I calculated the flag pole @ 34 feet. This makes our flag of only 3'x5' desperately too small.
Noah Visel
Lieutenant
Alachua Co. Fire/Rescue
I think this is a classic example of the old
We have been doing so much for so long with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing.....
Here is a transcript of the e-mails.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Dan Shaeffer
Sent: Monday, June 14, 2010 2:56 PM
To: Andy Carlisle; Ed Kennedy; Harold Theus; Jeff Harpe; Joe Cox; Larry Stewart
Subject: Flag size crisis
Apparently we face a new crisis; the standard flag that has been issued by CSW is no longer adequate. If you could please encourage your station officers to measure the station flag pole so that the proper flag dimension can be ordered. After we have heard from all stations we will begin repurchasing new pole ratio sized flags.
Thank you
Flag Pole to Flag Size Ratio
Pole Height
Flag Size
15
3x5'
20
3x5'
25
4x6'
30
5x8'
35
6x10'
40
6x10'
45
8x12'
50
10x15'
55
10x15'
60
10x15'
65
12x18'
70
12x18'
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------From: Andy Carlisle
Sent: Friday, July 02, 2010 9:17 PM
To: Alex Porgesz; David M. Hamilton; Donvovan Jones; David Walters; Drew Dabney; James Elmore; Noah D. Visel; Patrick Morris; Randy Jeter; Ryan C. Lowery; Robert Chapman; Ray Wolf
Subject: FW: Flag size crisis
I'm sure this has already been done in my absence. Thanks
Andrew Carlisle
District Chief
Alachua Co. Fire/Rescue
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Noah D. Visel
Sent: Saturday, July 03, 2010 9:17 AM
To: Andy Carlisle
Subject: RE: Flag size crisis
I would estimate our flag pole @ 25 feet. I did not however have a means to measure the flag pole. Neither a large enough ladder, nor a long enough measuring tape has been issued to the station, so given the equipment this initially seemed an impossible problem. then I thought about the problem a little longer and came up with this.
Length BO is difficult to get to and measure as there is a row of bushes around the flagpole making my pacing style of measurement difficult, trying to hop over the bushes.
This is a trigonometry problem, and while most paramedics encounter
trigonometry in the context of right triangles, we can also apply it
to general triangles as well:
F. FOA is a right triangle.
| . . The point O is inaccessible.
| . . We want to compute the height OF.
| . . We measure the distance BA and the
| . . angles of elevation OBF and OAF.
| . .
X-O-X--------B-------A
The triangle of interest is FAB. We have measured two angles of this
triangle: angle A (measured elevation from A), angle B (equal to 180
deg - elevation from B), and angle F (180 deg - A - B).
Using the Law of Sines, we can write
dist(BA) dist(FA)
------- = ------- this allows us to calculate the
sin(F) sin(B) distance FA.
And then we apply trigonometry to the right triangle FOA:
dist(FO) = dist(FA)*sin(A),
where our final answer is expressed in terms of quantities that we
have either measured directly or have computed from our measurements.
One could carry out the angle measurements either by using a sighting
instrument (such as a straw taped to a protractor with a weight
suspended from the origin), or by marking the location of the flagpole
shadow at the precise time that one measures the length of a shadow of
some shorter object such as a yardstick, or in my case a ruler I found in the station from an old pub ed. The shorter object gives us
information about the slope of the sun's rays via the arctangent.
The height is actually not 100% correct, again lacking the adequate means to measure long distances I had to pace the length of the flagpole shadow, nor did I have a level to ensure that the ruler was exactly level with the ground. however based on this simple mathematical formula I calculated the flag pole @ 34 feet. This makes our flag of only 3'x5' desperately too small.
Noah Visel
Lieutenant
Alachua Co. Fire/Rescue