December 5, 2023
5:20 pm

Poppy, Rory,

URGENT alert to all drivers on the road!
These two people:

will soon be maneuvering a two ton hunk of metal at high speed! Let’s all hope that they can pay attention and not be distracted.

Of course, you are no longer an easily distracted child. Please excuse my attempt at humor. My point is that when driving you need to constantly pay attention for everyone’s safety – yourself, your passengers, pedestrians, and other drivers.

I’m realizing that a lot of the driving advice I might want to offer would not make sense to you until you have more actual experience on the road. So today I will offer some comments on the previous two letters.

Tailgating ... what to do if someone else behind you is following too closely? Maintain your speed, stay to the right, ensure that you have enough space in front of you, and hopefully the person will pass you. If not, you might even have to pull over so they can pass. This would be fine because ... we’re not in a hurry!

Yes, it is good that the driver be receptive to the suggestions of passengers. But, the comfort and attentiveness of the driver is primary and of first importance – for everyone’s safety. For example, if a passenger wants to keep their window open for fresh air but this creates a distraction for the driver ... the passenger will have to close their window.

EVs. Why are we in the midst of an EV revolution? Global climate change. Carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. Extreme weather events. Drought, floods, wild fires, hurricanes, etc. There are many ways that everyone can reduce their carbon footprint and driving electric is one of those ways.

Yes, GPS is wonderful awesome technology. No longer do we need to struggle to see street signs or house numbers. But, if we depend on GPS too much we lose a sense of place and direction. If you know where you are going you don’t need a map!

Love,
guJon

P.S. Geometry postscript:

Last letter I asked what points C in the plane would create triangle ABC where A was the apex vertex of an isosceles triangle. It is the circle in red below – with center A and radius the length of AB.

The grey vertical line is the perpendicular bisector of AB – points where C is the apex vertex.

Similarly, the circle in blue – with center B and radius the length of AB, are the points C in the plane where B is the apex vertex of the isosceles triangle ABC.

Do you see the two points where the red and blue circles intersect? And note that the perpendicular bisector of AB also passes through those points. These two points are pretty special! What kind of triangle do they form with points A and B?

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