Popular Woodworking 2007-12 № 166, страница 9

than is safe if one wasn't paying attention? No! We were cautioned because there was some geometry coming straight for us!

Please - let's get a little perspective here. Woodworkers use tools that can dismember if not outright kill. On the previous page in the issue, there is a picture of a table saw without its blade guard (which I am certain was removed only for the clarity of the picture - woodworkers never work without the blade guard), but the warning is because the Pythagorean theorem is used to ensure a right angle.

I have seen this in your magazine several times - warnings that some aspect of the design might require doing a little figuring or methods of marking designed to avoid, horror of horrors, fractions.

Fractions and the Pythagorean theorem are grade-school mathematics. We learned these things before we were tall enough to use a table saw. We shouldn't need to be warned about them, and more important, we shouldn't be scared of them. Mathematics is a necessary part of design - you should be embracing it instead of perpetuating fear, even if you think it is somewhat tongue-in-cheek. PW

— Chris Kennedy, Ph.D.

Department of Mathematics Christopher Newport University Newport News, Virginia

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