Peter Hansen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Alex Martelli wrote: > > Zefria <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > ... > >>this special case I'm expecting each "carrier" to have up to 150 > >>fighters, and 3 to 5 carriers for each of the two teams, which comes > >>out to be quite large. > > > > The problem with the spread of email is that it reduces the number of > > envelopes laying around, and thus makes it harder to do "back of the > > envelopes" calculations (the key skill in engineering...). > > Actually, a properly performed "engineering approximation" is done > entirely in one's head, preferably without resorting to calculation at > all.
Of course, but you still need an envelope on whose back to scribble. Tradition and historical continuity demand it. > The "back of the envelope" ploy is reserved for cases where one is > trying to impress a waitress (which effort is inevitably doomed to fail > of course), or to make it easier to submit the dinner receipt as a > business expense... That's "back of the restaurant bill", a different though related technique. Since most restaurants don't print bills on envelopes, the two are not really comparable. Alex -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
