Rockwood: The Rockwood Mailbag.

The Rockwood Mailbag

Express yourself!

Have you always wanted to let Team Rockwood know just what you were thinking? Do you wonder why the panels of the strip are laid out horizontally instead of vertically? Or do you have sensitive documents that will bring down the government? In any case, we want to know! Just fill out your name and e-mail address, then let 'er rip! No question or comment is too bizarre for Team Rockwood to take a stab at, and if we can get enough mail coming in, this page will be updated weekly! (Unlike the old mailbag page, which got updated about four times in two years.)

So consider this an experiment in web interactivity. Or, consider it a way to artificially inflate our hit count. Either way, just write in!

Updated on March 1, 2005
		February 22, 2005 Great to see Rockwood alive and well - especially during E-Week. Erin Go Bragh! cannon fires --Lynn (Ghose) Cabrera
		We refuse to go away, Lynn! Apparently, you refuse to go away as well. But that's good! Lynn is one of Team Rockwood's first supporters, and just the fact that we haven't driven her away yet indicates to us that we must be doing something right. If only we could figure out what that thing is, we might be able to make a buck doing this.
		February 23, 2005 Pop music, more than other musical genres, has the ability to sound great and have the creepiest or disturbing lyrics. Just listen to an 80's greatest hits collection. :) An earlier example is the Monkees. There are a couple examples but I'll never listen to that song "Cuddly Toy" the same again. The song sounds so sweet with Davy Jones singing and it totally sounds like a love song. The story behind the song is it's actully based on a Hell's Angels gang bang. Lovely, huh? I do adore Every Breath You Take (scroll to last letter). It's my favorite stalker theme song of all time. Not that I stalk anybody or anything. But Team Rockwood does look especially good today. :) Speaking of stalker songs...that hit by Clay Aiken called Invisible was totally creepy but somehow marketed as a love song. The chorus was like "If I was invisible, Then I could just watch you in your room". And there was some line about wanting to be a "fly on your wall". Sounds likes somebody's just asking to be arrested on a B & E. --Mikki
		C'mon... a pop music star committing a crime? When has that ever happened?
		February 23, 2005 After a few months out of college and at a real job, it's time to see if I can still actually solve problems: Panel I: 20 burgers/hour * 8 hours/shift * 5 shifts/week * 52 weeks/year * x dollars/burger = 1,830,000 dollars/year; 160 burgers/shift * 5 shifts/week * 52 weeks/year * x dollars/burger = 1,830,000 dollars/year; 800 burgers/week * 52 weeks/year * x dollars/burger = 1,830,000 dollars/year; 41,600 burgers/year * x dollars/burger = 1,830,000 dollars/year; 4.160010^4 x = 1.8310^6 x = 43.990 A player would have to charge $43.99 per burger to gross their yearly salary. Ironically enough, this is actually well below the going rate for hamburgers purchased at major league stadiums. Panel 2: Assuming that the weight of the supports and supporting wire is negligible: The two leftmost hockey sticks balance and have a combined force of 16 N. To balance the 16 N force from 1 m away, we have a 8 N force from X m away: 16 N * 1 m = 8 N * x m 16 = 8x 2 = x The right support beam must be 2 m long for the mobile to work properly. Panel 3: 1/4 inch/month *x months = 2 inches; x = 8; Assuming that the lawyer cannot break through the ice at any thickness greater than zero and the lawyer's heart, being over the coldest part of its body is the last bit of ice to melt - the lawyer will be free after 8 months. 8 months after the problem was posted (Feb 23, 2005) would be Oct 23, 2005 - I could not determine the projected start of the 2005 season with a cursory web search, but since the 2003 season started on Oct 6 and the 2004 season was slated to start on Oct 13, it is likely that the lawyer will still be encased in at least a 1/16" layer of ice and unable to ruin the season (unless players trip over the lawyer's exposed parts when the ice thaws due to players skating over the area.) C'mon partial credit, don't fail me now! --T.C. Chavez
		Excellent work, T.C.! We don't know why you were worried about partial credit.
		February 22, 2005 Hey don't mess with us Canucks these days. We are a weee bit edgy, I'll explain. With the cancellation of the NHL our natural outlet for blood lust and violence has been removed. My weekly league game is simply not enough. Yes having 60 minutes to beat the crap out of people is relaxing, but it doesn't fill the void. We, as a people, need to see the art of violence and grace that is the NHL to satiate and sedate us. So there you go, you've got 30 million edgy Canadians on top of you. Tread quietly. --Simon Lepik
		It's not all bad, Simon. After all, you still have Curling Night!
		February 22, 2005 1. (20 Burgers/Hr)(8 Hr/Day)(5 Day/Wk)*(52 Wk/Yr) = 8320 Burgers per Year Divide the 1.83 Million per year by 8320 burgers per year = 219.95(1923). Thus $219.96 would be the NET required for each burger. You then have to add the price of the burger, bun, and condiments to get the gross. 2. Since the mobiles on the left are both the same weight, are the same distance from their attachment point, and they are hanging from their center of gravity (which is equidistant from the center point on the left), the left half must be balanced and therefore one can simply add the force of the two pistols on the left giving 16 N down on the left. Multiplying the force times the distance gives you 16 Newton meters. Thus you need 16 Newton meters of force on the other end so you need 2m of length. (x=2) (Nice job using N instead of kg. I hate when people from countries who use the metric system say they weigh x kilograms, but I digress.) 3. First of all you are assuming a lawyer's heart has a temperature above absolute zero. I'll go ahead and concede the 1/4 inch/month number. He will melt 1 inch of ice in 4 months. The second inch will be gone after 8 months but the lawyer will still be dead from being run over by a Zamboni, hypothermia, and lack of oxygen so GAME ON! --Monty
		So close, Monty, but yet so far. You might want to check your math on that first line. And we suspect that those metric-system-types give their weight in kilograms because even they don't know how the metric system works.
		February 24, 2005 Dear Team Rockwood, The last panel in Wednesday's Engineers Week strip was a trick question. Lawyers don't have hearts! Very sneaky! --DAH!
		Dah, indeed! You caught us! Of course we knew that, but it made it past our normally stringent proofreading. What we meant to say instead of "the lawyer's cold heart" was "the space in the lawyer's chest that would normally harbor a heart." It's just as well, though. That phrase wouldn't have fit in the available space. So this year we'll just grant lawyers hearts. Don't say we never did anything for you, legal eagles!
		February 22, 2005 The first one is grade school, so even I can do it. 20 burgers per hour 8 hours per day equals 160 burgers per day times 5 days per week equals 800 burgers per week times 52 weeks equals 41,600 burgers per year(not a leap year) Average salry of $1.83 million divided by 41600 burgers equals $43.99 per burger. Not bad --Jim Rockwood
		Partial credit, Jim, but what happened to the rest? It's an open-book test and it's not like we're pressuring you for time. Really, people, we ask so little.
		Previous week's mail

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