Math Can Be Fun! Written by Anthony Sava | Thursday, 04 February 2010 18:47 After my recent article (http://www.railbricks.com/railblog-categories/other/159-my-nerd-sense-is-tingling), I was contacted by a fellow TexLUG member who asked me about the scale I built my trains. He is interested in building a particular model and wanted a starting point, an asked me “do you build your trains 10 feet to 8 studs scale?” After all, I built my two TSRR locomotives at 8 wide scale, and as I said in my article they turned out to be about 10 feet wide. I replied and said no, that was just coincidence. I scale all of my locomotives based on their driver size, and for my two locomotives I considered a large BBB driver, 4 studs in diameter, equal to a driver somewhere between 55” and 65”. But then I got to thinking... just what is that? Well, 60”, the average size of a driver I consider to be represented by a large BBB driver, happens to be 5 feet. 5 feet to 4 studs scale... wait a minute... Well what do you know, I really DO model at 10 feet to 8 studs scale.
GET OUR NEW CDS TODAY!
V i s i t the R A I L B RICKS R A I L B LOG at w w w.railbricks.com
Math can be fun! For the curious, 10 feet to 8 studs scale mathematically ends up being 1:48 scale. Then again, my math skills seem to be a little off lately.
Have an idea for RAILBRICKS? Here are some guidelines for getting your article published in an upcoming issue. W h o m ay s u b m i t a n a r t i c l e? A nyo n e m ay s u b m i t a r t i c l es for consideration by t h e RA I L B R I C KS staff. S ubmitted articles are rev i ewe d a n d , i f s u i ta b l e, used in future issues o f R A I L B R I C KS m a ga z i n e. Peo p l e s u b m i tt i n g a r t i c l e s do not need to be p ro fe s s i o n a l l eve l w r i te rs. RAILBRICKS is a m a ga z i n e fo r fa n s , by fa ns. We welcome art i c l e s f ro m ent h u s i a st s w ho build, collect, and p l ay w i t h L EG O ® t ra i n s . W hen we evaluate art i c l e s , we l o o k fo r q u a l i t y in the content and t h e b a s i c w r i t i n g st y l e. We also evaluate any p h o to s t h at a c co m p a ny t he submission. Ever y a r t i c l e to b e p u b l i s h e d i s edited by the RAIL B R I C KS staff to i n c re a s e readability if needed, a n d w h il e b a s i c g ra m m a r and spelling are exp e c te d , p er fe c t i o n i s n o t necessar y. W h at s o r t o f a r t i c l e s m ay be submitted? A ny m ate r i a l rel ated to t he creation, display, o r co l l ec t i n g o f L EG O ® t ra ins is welcome. This i n c l u d e s a r t i c l e s a b o u t p rototype trai ns or rail ro a d i n g l o cat i o n s t h at m ay spark inspiration, ove r v i ews o f m o d el s t h at have been created, o r step -by- ste p i n st r u c t i o ns for train models. W h i l e o u r fo c u s i s L EG O ® t rains, articles about rel ated i te m s , s u c h a s modif ying track with n o n - L EG O ® el e m e nt s , a re also welcome. We a re a l s o i ntereste d i n t h e overall LEGO® train co m m u n i t y, s o a r t i c l e s a bout events, peopl e, o r c l u bs a re a l s o en co u ra ged.
How long sho uld articles be? Submissions should be long enough to cover the article’s topic, but short enough to hold the attention of the reader. In general arti cles should be between 750 to 3,000 words in length, and include any photographs or images that will accompany the tex t. In addition to images, any sort of source material that was used during the writing of the article, such as website URLs or book titles should be included in order to give readers additional resources should they decide to read more about the topic outside of RAILBRICKS. What if an article is over 3,000 words? 3,000 words is a guideline. If you have an idea for an article that may be over 3,000 words, please send us an outline or summar y. We may decide that the idea warrants the ex tra space, or the article may be a good candidate for being printed in installments across multiple issues. How should articles be prepared? Articles should be typed in either a tex t docu ment or e-mail, and should use proper gram mar, punctuation, and spelling. While the RAILBRICKS staff does edit submissions, they need to be in a readable form to begin with. Perfection is not necessar y. We don’t mind correcting a few spelling mistakes or punctua tion errors.
added as a file attachment (MicroSo f t Wo rd , OpenOffice Writer, tex t file, etc). Ima ge s to b e included with the article should be s u b m i tted as separate attachments, and clearly n a m e d . We can accept images in JPG, GIF, P NG , o r TIFF formats. High resolution images, 3 0 0 D P I at least, are preferred as they will re p ro d u c e better than lower resolution images. When will my article be printed? Accepted articles will be included in f u t u re i s sues of RAILBRICKS. When the article i s i n c l u d ed depends on a number of factors i n c l u d i n g the amount of content already availa b l e to b e printed, themes of specific articles, an d a r t i c l e length. In short, there is no way to d eter m i n e exactly when an article will be includ e d . Does ever y thing published?
that
gets
submitte d
get
Unfortunately, no. While we will ma ke a n effort to publish what we can, it is no t a l ways possible to include ever y thing. Are authors compensated for their p r i nted articles? No one is paid for RAILBRICKS, inclu d i n g t h e editorial and writing staff. RAILBRIC KS i s a n all volunteer project, and as such, au t h o rs a re not paid for the use of their material . A r t i c l e s used by RAILBRICKS remain the pro p e r t y o f their authors.
How are artic les submitted? Completed articles may be e-mailed to submis sions@railbricks.com . The tex t of the article may either b e in the body of the e-mail, or
5