John,

You're right about the placement of the crane in this case--it's just about optimal right where it is.  Which makes the dilemma of deciding which way to move the crane even more painful!  Better, I think, to put the crane in the optimal location in the first place.  Then, if it doesn't reach, it just doesn't reach.  Relocating the crane won't help!  Most of the crane operators (and screaming superintendants) that I've known with were pretty darned good at picking a location for the crane based on their personal experience and intuition--no measurements.  But this approach doesn't assure optimal placement.

The screenshot below shows some calculations that confirm your assertion: the crane placement is just about, but not quite, optimal.  However, the potential gains in this case are very small--only about 0.1' of reach could be gained by locating the crane about 5' closer to the building.

The more important point, I think, is that the optimal location can be easily calculated ahead of time using the given formula.  This is the result that I had to discover for myself.  I think this is a handy little factoid that anyone who ever needs to place a crane could benefit from.  There may be other applications, as well. 

Despite this, I've probably beat this dead horse about as much about as much as anyone can stand.  So, if anyone would like details concerning the derivation of this equation, let me know & I will share them privately.

Hey Rod.

Did you ever think of moving your program to a 4-day week?  Lots of folks do it.  Our administration had a big push a while back to move to the 4-day week.  Their motivations included transportation, child care, etc.  Although the faculty, as a whole, freaked out and shot the idea down, I jumped on board.  Students love it!  And, although I still work a 5-day week, I am able to get lots of paperwork, meetings, and industry visits done on Fridays.  Sometimes, I am even able to work from home!

I can't say that the 4-day week is best for student learning.  However, moving to 4 days did give me an additional opportunity to "ratchet up" my demands for regular attendance.  When students assert a need to take a day for "appointments," I now tell them to make their appointments on Friday!

As an amusing aside, I had a whole bunch of Russian immigrant students a while back (10 or 15 years ago).  On the whole, they were excellent students.  Most came from the ranks of skilled labor in the old country--machinists, electricians, welder/fabricators, etc.  But language was a HUGE issue.  Most of the time, they didn't understand me at all--they just nodded their heads in agreeement, then went and did exactly what THEY wanted to do.  One student in particular (I will call him Ivan), kept telling me that he had to miss school because of "appointment."  "Why weren't you at school yesterday Ivan?"  His response: Appointment.

At long last, I sat him down to investigate this "appointment" thing.  It turns out that he was going fishing!  He had simply learned that, by claiming "appointment," he could be excused from school!

Dan