Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Greatest sports stories of 2016

2016, for all its geo-political miseries, was one of the greatest years in sports. So here is an attempt to capture (and rank) the important moments. Of course, it is impossible to be objective on a topic like this, but most lists I've read are not only terribly subjective, but also biased (this side/that side of the pond, etc) and incomplete. So here is my take on it, broken down into (4 equally weighted categories on a scale of 10). Of course, individual/olympic athletes are going to be downgraded, but hey, that's the way the world works. I also made a list purely based on achievement in globally relevant sports.


Stories:
Team/Individual     Shock value / Significance to fans / Global importance / Achievement in that sport
1. Leicester city        10; 10; 8; 7
2. Cleveland Cavs      8; 10; 9; 7
3. Djokovic                6; 7; 9; 10
4. Usain Bolt             6; 7; 8; 10
5. Portugal                 8; 9; 8 ; 6
6. Chicago Cubs        7; 10; 5; 7
7. Michael Phelps      8; 6; 7; 9
8. Simone Biles         5; 4; 5; 10
9. Katie Ledecky       4; 4; 5; 10
10. Serena Williams  4; 5; 7; 9

Achievements:
1. Simone Biles
2. Katie Ledecky
3. Usain Bolt
4. Novak Djokovic (only because he tanked half the year)
5. Michael Phelps
6. Lebron James
7. Serena Williams

Plays:  (Team sports.. only championship games matter)
1. Villanova    
2. Carlos Brathwaite
3. Irving / James

Performances:  (Individual sports.. only finals matter)
1. Wayde van Niekerk (Olympic 400m)
2. Katie Ledecky 
3. Simone Biles



Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Univ of Michigan Aerodynamics exam from 1942, etc

As I was preparing to set my own Aerodynamics exam, my department chair sent me this gem from 1942. http://umich.edu/~caslab/docs/1942_Aero_Exam.pdf
It is pretty amazing that this was barely 37 years after the Wright brothers' first flight. Of course, my mind is permanently blown courtesy of the fact that U Michigan offered an Aeronautics degree within a decade of the first flight (also the oldest Aeronautics program in the country.. beating MIT by a year or so). Felix Pawlowski - an amazing human was mostly responsible for that. In fact, the exam linked above was his.