During my years as a carpenter, I worked for a construction company called Truss Plus, Incorporated. One of the projects I was involved in was the construction of the Asbury Plaza Strip Mall in Dubuque, Iowa (2002-2003). The pictures, documents, and files pertaining to that project have been lost to time. However, the above picture has a strong resemblance to the Asbury Plaza Strip Mall, and should suffice as a visual reference. (Paul, C. "Barnes and Noble Booksellers Photos and Pictures," from http://westfield-photos.funcityfinder.com/2011/05/19/barnes-and-noble-booksellers-photos-and-pictures/)
One day I overheard the Vice President of Truss Plus expressing concern over a problem with the project. He said that the several of the strip mall's storefronts had round, or even elliptical, shapes. Typically a carpenter would create a round shape by anchoring one end of a long object at a pivot point, and scribing a large arc with the other end. But the blueprints called for arcs having radii too large for that method, and in some cases they called for elliptical shapes. No one at the company could think of a way to make the storefront shapes. (Miller, J. and Miller, L., 2007, "Photos of The Grove at Welsey Chapel Grand Opening," from http://activerain.com/blogsview/268118/photos-of-the-grove-at-wesley-chapel-grand-opening)
Being a young, new employee, I was apprehensive about speaking up, but it occurred to me that those shapes could be described by mathematical equations. I proposed that I could write an equation that would give me x and y coordinates describing the desired shapes. I was ridiculed for my bazaar idea, but I went home that night with the blueprints, I derived equations, and I tabulated the coordinates describing the storefront shapes. I came back the next day and insisted they let me try my method. I endured hours of snide comments and laughter while I plotted the points on the walls. When I was finished, we had the exact shapes we needed. Thanks to my strength, I stuck to my guns and greatly impressed the Vice President of my company. (Miller, J. and Miller, L., 2007, "Photos of The Grove at Welsey Chapel Grand Opening," from http://activerain.com/blogsview/268118/photos-of-the-grove-at-wesley-chapel-grand-opening)
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