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Hi David,
Welcome to the group.
I'm in my 50s from N.Z. & hadn't given
submarines a thought till 2 years ago.
Wish I'd taken an interest at your age; building
one is so interesting.
I'm not sure what you mean by dive school, but
doing a dive course & taking
a dive in some nice clear water is a good start. As
a scuba diver you're that much
closer to the environment than you are in a sub. It
helps you get a good handle on
the physics of what goes on down there & the
experience is a good safety feature
should you have to exit a sub in an
emergency.
Regards Alan
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 2010 5:08
PM
Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Introduction to
the PSUBS group
Hello
all,
I figured I might as well introduce myself, as I have been reading the
group emails for a few months and learning a lot. My name is David
Hoffman, I live near St. Paul, MN and I am a recent graduate in mechanical
engineering from the university of minnesota. I have a huge range of
interests in science and engineering ranging from evolutionary biology to
cosmology to jet turbines. My focus in education is on thermodynamics,
particularly computational thermodynamics, heat transfer and combustion.
I know my way around the shop and am a pretty good welder, machinist and
fabricator.
I don't know what got me started on my interest in
submarines but it seems to have started with reading a wikipedia article on
the mid-ocean ridge in the Atlantic. I think that might have gotten me
onto Robert Ballard and the sinking of the Thresher and Scorpion.
Anyway, after doing a lot of reading I am considering a career in oceanography
or deep water work. I am still trying to figure out exactly where I want
to take my career, whether I should go to dive school or go for an advanced
degree in oceanography or get a desk job. If anyone here has any advise
I would love to hear it. I likely won't be building my own sub any time
soon but I am still interested in the goings-on of the community.
I am
pretty impressed with most of the discussion and projects being built by the
group, and hope that I can be of help through my thermodynamics education and
fabrication experience. You guys have some elegant ways to solve complex
problems that I had no idea even existed prior to reading about them
here.
David Hoffman
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