A friend of mine while we were in school (RPI) interned at GE and apparently they receive tons of letters each Christmas sent to Santa which have 12345 as the zip that GE staff volunteer to reply to.
Well over 30 years ago one of the first things I learned in my EE degree was Steinmetz's method for calculating steady state amplitude and phase in AC networks comprising generators, resistors, capacitors and inductors. He worked out a transformation that lets you use simply solve a set of simultaneous equations, in exactly the same way as simpler DC networks with only batteries and resistors. The only extra price you pay is that the equations use complex numbers instead of real numbers. It really seemed like magic to me. Sadly a career in software has gradually worn down the motivation I once felt to revisit some of the really beautiful ideas underpinning technology, with the idea of getting a better understanding the second time through.
Really fun to read. I grew up in Schenectady, played Schenectady youth hockey and later got a job with GE in downtown Schenectady. It was there I started using Java (v1.0.2) building rich client apps using AWT (Swing didn't exist yet). One app was for building a pricing engine for steam turbines. Good memories.
Nice article. I used the "$9,999 on where to put it" for years; didn't know it was Steinmetz. After reading biographies on Tesla and Heaviside, I suppose Steinmetz is next on my list.
[+] [-] bluetwo|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ltnately|8 years ago|reply
https://dailygazette.com/galleries/2014/12/09/ge-answers-san...
[+] [-] billforsternz|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dungle6|8 years ago|reply
For better or worse most engineering students learn it as a Laplace transform with very little mention of Steinmetz.
[+] [-] evanspa|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] madengr|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] __s|8 years ago|reply