Ragnarok wrote:Not everyone is lucky enough to be a aeronautical engineer that knows the right terms for everything.
I realize. And it actually gets worse. The AE folk who design aircraft have one nomenclature/methodology convention while the folks who design missiles and projectiles (ie, artillery shells and the like) have a completely different convention. Because aircraft is what everybody "sees" in the aerospace world that's what's covered in texts 99.9% of the time. The "missile conventions" (my words) are somewhat of an arcane art shared amongst a tightly cloistered community.
My point being that I'm fully aware of how rare my insight into this particular topic is. That's a large part of why I originally never said anything; I didn't want to start a big controversy (too late, I guess).
I did a little work for the spreadsheet, although I didn't do the main body of it. IIRC, it was started a little over 2 years ago when I was 17, and really, it was a learning experience. No real idea about drag forces - just some good google skills to try and find out.
As I hinted at in the earlier post... Looking at it I could see what you were trying to do and it most certainly was a valiant attempt for one who'd not yet had formal training in the topic. It was a bastardization, but much of that is because it was obvious you were starting from scratch. For what it's worth, IIRC it looks like your methodologies were more inline with the missile community than the aircraft community.
Heck, the terms you're concerned about were probably just what we guessed at to try and label some of the boxes that needed a better explanation.
Of that, I'm certain. Please don't take this the wrong way, but this is a double edge sword.
On the one hand, your self-coined terms and conventions showed drive and ingenuity.
On the other hand, your self-coined terms meant that you likely had a hodge podge of self-taught and classical aerodynamics methodologies. IE, where in doubt you used your own (which based on your nomenclature makes me suspect your mind works like a missile designer's) but where you could google you likely used classical methods (ie, aircraft methodologies).
The bad news is that while the two methodologies are mathematically equivelent, you can't just mix and match pieces of them without screwing stuff up. It is THAT can of worms that I simply did not want to deal with.
But to summarize: While I didn't want to deal with sorting out the spreadsheet, that doesn't mean that I don't respect the thought and effort that obviously went into it. If I have offended you (and by your tone clearly I have), I sincerely appologize. Offending you (or anyone else involved with it) was never my intention. Hell, I don't care if it was total bollocks, you at least made a bone fide attempt whereas most people just scratch their ass, sniff their finger, and decide that they don't know shit from Shinola.
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