And, now he's (or she's) gone....

So I have been fascinated by a regular visitor to this blog for the last three or so weeks.  The visits stopped early on 7/20.  The visitor had a unique signature.  He (or she) was careful to always visit the home page then another obscure page from 2013.  Almost always two page views per visit.   The visits were  an hour or so apart.  He or she was shown to be in Russia.   He or she used mostly the Chrome browser but occasionally Firefox.  That is all I know.

So, was there a message in these clicks?  I don't know.  I couldn't see one, but maybe I am not thinking of all the possibilities.   I considered earlier the click code.  There are not enough characters used.  I considered Morse code because there was some variation in the timing of the visits.  I recently read about Columbian hostage rescue in which the Morse code message was embedded in a popular song.  This was a really cool idea and it worked.  But, in this case, I could not see any way that an ending dot of a character could be distinguished from an ending dash.  Because the blogger analytics are reported hourly, the sender would have to time his visits hourly for dots, two hours for dashes and several hours for end of character.   This would be a miserably tedious way to send a message.  Because the visits were sustained for several weeks, I am certain that it was intentional.  Not sure about whether it was a bot or not.

My current theory is that the clicks were in response to my web surfing.  I am aware but do not own or use software that tracks individuals who visit a page.  I think my Russian visitor does.  I think my surfing attracted someone's attention and they figured out where my blogspot was located and clicked on it in response to my visits to their blog page or Twitter account.  Just a theory.

I enjoyed the game while it lasted and wish you well my Russian friend.  If you happen to be Vladimir Putin, please go easy on Donald.  He is not very bright and has a nasty temper.

Here is the last of the logged visits.  The three clicks since 7/20 seem random and unconnected to the visitor.  One was from UK, one from France, and one was me mistakenly clicking on my own page.  They did not match the Russian visitor's signature.

Enjoying the love from Russia

This poor orphan post from a poor orphan blog has been getting some views from Russia.  The views seem to correspond to starts of World Cup games.   So, in response, "Hi Black Jack.  I hope your team wins."  Not much of a clue from Google analytics of where the futbol fan is from.  Maybe Switzerland or The Netherlands.  I have enjoyed the tournament too, but my team, Brazil, exited yesterday.  I am hoping now for an England-France final.  It would be epic.

Thanks for the views guys and gals.  I hope someone is fan of the Tour de France and that I get a lot of views from France next week.  You don't know how amused I am by the attention.

On the wheel truing app, I have a workroom now in my new condo.  I hope to get the truing workstation set up in there and rebuild a couple of wheels in the next view weeks.  I will post some pictures of it soon.  I added some electric outlets and need to paint the resulting wallboard repairs first.

Take care out there.  I hope all your teams win and your wheels roll very true (better than 0.15 mm).

A New Problem!?

So this blog has turned into an textbook example of a failed blog.  It is a boring topic.  It is poorly executed for the lack of a way to include a lot of equations.   It is intended for like-minded math hobbyists who wish to tackle challenging, useful math problem that seem solvable a little below the level of Fermat's last theorem or the Poincare conjecture. The problem is such a person is extremely rare and unlikely to find this place.  I stopped adding anything over a year ago.

Nonetheless, I continue to check the stats.  This is last week.



Twenty-one views from UAE and twenty-one from Russia.  The single view from United States is mine.

While the visitor is likely a bot crawling the internet that just stops at 21 views if it has not found anything interesting, it is curious.  Could it be a world traveler killing time in an airport?  Why 21?  Coincidence? I typically see three or four views a month.  A spike really stands out as something different.

So, my conjecture based on an abundance of time and endless optimism is that it is a message and is a mathematical puzzle for me to solve from some like-minded individual who travels to exotic places.  I shall call this person Black Jack.  I shall further conjecture that it is a code, like the tap code, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tap_code

"21" in tap code would be "f".  So far the message is "ff".  That is not a recognizable message.  Either I missed the first part of the message or there is more to the puzzle.   I shall continue to monitor the stats and await more clues.  Carry on Black Jack.  I am listening.

Wheel Design and Structural Analysis Program

The use of the analytical wheel model for evaluating structural properties of a wheel design is an obvious application that may have more uses than the truing algorithm.

The goal of this application  is to evaluate stiffness in various directions, buckling spoke tension, maximum and minimum tension in the spokes, and maximum deflection under normal and limiting case loads.  The wheel can be analyzed with different combinations of tension, spoke diameters, spoke lacing patterns, hubs, and rims.  The wheel is an interconnected structure in which all components and loads affect one another.  Human intuition about the structural mechanics fails us in figuring out how one change will affect the wheel as a whole.  The resulting myth and false information about what different designs achieve for the rider leads to poor designs.  This tool allows some quantitative measures of wheel's properties.  Exploration of the parameter space replaces intuition with real science.

Some changes have to be made to add the capability for external loading to the wheel.  We have added point loads representing externally applied radial, axial and azimuthal loads.  Combinations of these loads can simulate virtually any riding condition.  The radial load represents the vertical load of the wheel against the road.  The axial load is a side load from turning or rocking the wheel.  Azimuthal load is the load from pedaling or braking.  The model assumes mechanical equilibrium and computes the reaction loads for the externally applied loads.

We have designed the calculation so that a number of values can be entered for a parameter or load so that the outputs may be plotted as a function of the range of inputs.

In its present form, the code exists as a Matlab program.  I have not uploaded it to the Mathworks because I still hope to commercialize it.  Proposals on creating an app are welcome.

Will the real Thomas Wilson Please Stand Up

I googled Thomas Wilson bicycle wheel.  Interestingly, I personally was not on the first, second, or third page.  I did find a Thomas Wilson who is a service manager at a cyling shop, a storyteller who wrote about his 6 year old learning to ride a bicycle and his brother 20 months younger who duplicated the feat almost immediately.  I found that Thomas Wilson was in Back to the Future as the redoubtable, Biff Tannen.  I have long know about Tom Wilson and Tom Wilson Jr. , father and son, who have drawn the cartoon Ziggy, for 45 years.  Tom, Tommy or Thomas Wilson has played several times in the NFL, NHL , MLB, and  professionally for the Australian national team.

There are innumerable Dr. Thomas Wilson’s.  You could be treated multiple times for every conceivable ailment all by one or another Dr. Wilson.

There are professors, lawyers, and all sorts of other professionals who appear when googling the name.

Thomas Wilson, it is like not having a name at all.

Hasty Post on Modeling Equations

My last post on Introduction to Introduction to the Model Derivation and Overview of Equations was a bit hasty.  After finding a way to link documents that actually transferred the equations, I was eager to try it.  However, there are still some problems with the linked document.  The equation numbers have been stripped so there are gaps in the text where the reference is given and there are no numbers attached to any equation.  The other problem is that I was actually in the midst of an update on this version to add external load.  I had not gotten very far but the incomplete editing would probably be confusing.  The equations are difficult enough to understand without the inconsistencies inflicted by the author.

Please give me your forbearance.  I will update the document as I have time over then next few days. In the meantime, some comments from readers would be appreciated.

Introduction to the Model Derivation and Overview of Equations

In this linked document, the overall layout of modeling equations is described.  The matrix form of each equation is given.  Detailed derivations of the matrix elements will be given in subsequent posts.

It appears that the equation numbers generated by Mathtype are not recognized by Googledocs and are not given.  This may make the document unusable. Please advise if you cannot follow the text because of this problem.

Overview of Matrix Structure of Wheel Model