A type of “element analysis” named for this adjective involves discretizing a structure into millions of points and solving a PDE at each of them before interpolating the results. For 10 points each:
[10m] Name this adjective, which also precedes “difference” in a class of numerical methods for solving ODEs.
ANSWER: finite [accept finite element analysis or finite element method or finite difference method]
[10m] Name this man who, along with flour merchant and prisoner Jesse Hawley, promoted the construction of the Erie Canal. Despite being derided as this man’s “folly,” the canal enabled the rapid growth of Buffalo.
ANSWER: DeWitt Clinton [accept Clinton’s Big Ditch or Clinton’s folly] (The book is titled “The Artificial River: The Erie Canal and the Paradox of Progress, 1817–1862.”)
[10h] In finite element analysis, the structure is broken into pieces by generating one of these structures. A form of circuit analysis named for these structures involves solving for a namesake current around loops.
ANSWER: meshes [accept mesh analysis or mesh current]
[10h] A member of this family donated 100,000 acres of land purchased from the Holland Land Company to finance the Erie Canal. Daniel Webster argued against another member of this family with a license from Robert Fulton.
ANSWER: Ogden [accept David Aaron Ogden or Aaron Ogden] (Daniel Webster argued for Gibbons in Gibbons v. Ogden.)
[10e] A common application of FEA is in field simulation, which involves numerically solving these four fundamental equations of electromagnetism named for a Scottish scientist.
ANSWER: Maxwell’s equations
[10e] While Carroll Sheriff describes contemporary views of the canal as a “work of art,” artists in this school were ambivalent about the canal. This landscape movement was named for a New York river connected by the Erie Canal.
ANSWER: Hudson River School [accept New York School until “river” is read]
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