Strategic Alliances and Competitive Advantage †MyAssignmenthelp

Question: Examine about the Strategic Alliances and Competitive Advantage. Answer: Presentation The protection merchant arranges, requests or sells the protection with the end goal of pay. For the most part the specialist works autonomously, that implies they may offer the customer with a large group of items and administrations identified with protection for considering. They have more elevated level of duty in regards to helping their customers to choose the best budgetary item according to their requirements[1]. The protection representative is pro in hazard the executives and protection. Dealers follow up for the benefit of their customers and now and then the protection merchant go about as the specialist of back up plan. In any case, where this condition emerges, the circumstances are completely expressed to the client[2]. The representative helps with distinguishing the business danger of the customer and encourages him to take choices in regards to what is to be protected and how to moderate the related dangers. Further, the protection agent can give specialized prompts that can be pivotal for raising a case. By and large, the dealers are aware of the conditions and terms, prohibitions, advantages and cost of different serious arrangements of protection. This report will concentrate on a specific protection broking association that is Henderson Insurance Broking Group (HIBL), their exercises and how they utilize the client information to winning new customers, holding the current customers and dealing with the objections of the customer. This report will additionally examine the adequacy of the utilization of client information to win new customers, hold the current customers and deal with the objections of the customer. In light of the examination, this report will propose some suggestion to HBIL for improving the best approach to utilize the client information to win new customers, hold the current customers and deal with the protests of the customer. WhenHenderson Insurance Broking Group(HIBL) was built up around 30 years back, their basic way of thinking was to be the best, getting it directly in the first endeavor and anticipating their staff and customers or another person. In UK they are among the top most significant autonomous agents for protection and they are working all over UK through their 15 workplaces. They make the scaffold for the hole among the enormous worldwide organizations and little nearby specialists and their prosperity is principally founded on their demonstrable skill, responsibility and freedom to put their customer and their enthusiasm at the spot of highest need. They have different master divisions and utilize the accomplished staff and aptitude for supporting the contributions concerning genera protection at all the workplaces of Henderson Insurance Broking Group[3]. The record handlers from Henderson buckle down for understanding the matter of the customer so they can produce customized bundles for the individual customers dependent on the idea of their business and inclinations. They offer their types of assistance to different segments like agreements and developments, producing, open segment, discount and retail, SME, fire security, beverages and nourishments, marines, farming and innovation are not many to be named.By choosing HIBL, the customer is being guaranteed with respect to the skill and duty of their divisional groups and masters working over all the parts and regions like development bonds, hazard the board, social insurance, proficient dangers. The experience and information helps with producing the tweaked administrations concerning the difficulties and changing prerequisites of the customers. The solid relationship among the main organizations giving protection administrations and the colleagues of HIBL in relationship with the i mmediate access they offers is the affirmation in regards to how they secure the best accessible arrangements for their clients[4]. Utilizing client information to win customers and hold customers and dealing with the grievances of the customers The greater part of the protection intermediaries have the information of the client inclination, their conduct and their patterns that they at first gather before making any techniques to win clients. The best method to utilize the clients information is to perceive the business openings through investigating the information in various ways[5]. The client information helps to win new clients in the accompanying manners Comprehend the client choice over 35% of the explores are helped out through online review. The organization can screen the online life to comprehend the pattern of clients buy. In addition, the client information can be utilized to set-up the solid tweaked administration bundles that can be offered to the customers in customized way. Refining the evaluating and showcasing approach the investigation of clients information can help in observing the clients approach towards the contenders and to set up the estimating and advertising approach in better way[6]. Further, they can investigate the reality with respect to the inclination of the potential customers[7]. In addition, they can watch the degree of cases on various sorts of arrangements and can alter the premiums based on the ongoing information with respect to dangers. To distinguish the open doors the vast majority of the broking bunches have the necessary information that they inside produce. Through examination of the report, they know the key items and key markets. The reality they have to discover more is to the gap[8]. The most proficient approach to utilize the clients information is to recognize the business openings. Understanding the customers is progressively perplexing contrasted with what somebody can think and it requires insightful examination of how and where the information in regards to the clients can be gathered in a significant manner. Through better meaning of the client conduct approach are the most significant thing of protection broking business and the examination can be begun from estimating and breaking down the better method to draw in them which thusly will help with winning more clients. The accompanying methodologies are utilized to hold the current clients Key factors that set the clients apart The clients from each help part are diverse with their one of a kind prerequisite and inclination. The realities those make the clients under the protection broking industry not quite the same as different divisions must be identified[9]. The reality might be geology, explicit necessities, business division of the clients or the segment subtleties. When the organization comprehends these realities, they will be in the better situation to set the objective technique. Realtime conduct of the clients - for holding the clients in better manner, the understanding to the clients must be gotten through the examination of their real behaviour[10]. Customers can be overviewed and speculations can be drawn from the review results[11]. In any case, in todays serious world, organizations are required to gather however much information as could reasonably be expected for the customers with respect to their continuous conduct. Review questions may incorporate what are their desire from the organization, regardless of whether they have any past positive or negative involvement in the organization, whether they are upbeat or discontent with the administration bundle and whether they are glad or not with the correspondence arrangement of the organization with the customers. Manufacture trust through relationship it is said that you carry on business with the individuals you trust. For protection broking business working of trust through keeping up legitimate relationship assumes a significant job in holding the leaving clients. Where trust expands, it builds the responsibilities additionally develop. Actualize the expectant help - the expectant administrations are the proactive ways to deal with the client administrations. It is proposed that as opposed to trusting that the issues will occur, the organization that applies the expectant methodology can limit the issues before it happens. Building on the web relationship as the individuals now a days are extremely dynamic in social medias, the organization can make the social profiles on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. The clients will have the option to express their perspectives, stop protests in regards to their administrations in the social Medias which thusly will help the organization to adopt better strategies for taking care of the issues. The board of customers grumble The benchmark for the fruitful agent is the capacity of the organization to react and administrate the cases independent of the size of the case that is little or enormous. Their primary goal is to convey their customers with complete help all through the absolute existence of the case. The statement of purpose of HIBL is o offer a proactive and expert cases administration to their customers and convey precise and important advice[12]. Further, they handle the cases in the accompanying manners All the cases of the customers are taken care of from the first office. They offer all out administrations began from the underlying warning to the last settlement. They give full scientific help to distinguishing the patterns of mollusks They are constantly arranged to acknowledges the demands identified with back up plan thinking They offer specialized direction and help for the significant misfortunes Instructive reports are legitimately given by and by or through email. As the business is totally focussed on conveyance of administrations, they comprehend the way that the crises can happen whenever and the time may not be the customary office timing. Along these lines, they guarantee that someone is accessible nonstop to give help to the clients[13]. For the crises that emerge during out of hours, different record administrators and phone numbers are accessible in the companys official site. Their case group incorporates different specialists, for example, Laura Brelsford in Hull office, Francisco Sandoal in Harrogate office, Tom England in Leeds1 office, Paul Taylor in Kirmington office and Sharon Bulpitt in Newcastle office are not many to be named. Viability of client information Hazard the executives The Company guarantees their customer that they have the best spread for their business at the hours of outer weights and emergency. As the autonomous b

Wallace Stevens Essays - American People Of German Descent

Wallace Stevens Samantha Erck Research Paper Wallace Stevens: Inside the Gray Flannel Suit Pragmatists, wearing square hets, Think, in square rooms, Taking a gander at the floor, Taking a gander at the roof, They restrict themselves To right-calculated triangles. In the event that they attempted rhomboids, Cones, waving lines, ovals As, the oval of the half moon- Realists would wear sombreros. Six Significant Landscapes (Collected Poems p.73-75) Wallace Stevens is considerd one of the most significant artists of this century. His style was one of a kind and diffrent. The manner in which he utilized words to optain the truth of something that can't be contacted, is an astonishing and brilant ability. Stevens was an extremely effective lawer and representative just as an extraordinary peot. We for the most part consider peots and craftsmen as starving specialists. Stevens was a very accommplished lawer was as yet ready to compose beautifull peotry. His peoms useually contadicted his lifestile, yet that may be were he got his insperation. He had a spouse, family, and profession, he had a very queit way of life. Be that as it may, his peotry is extremely uproarious and dynamic. Wallace Stevens was conceived in 1879, in Reading, Pennsylvania. As a youngster, he began at parochial schools, and later took a crack at government funded schools. Wallace's folks urge him to peruse, which helped him become a superior writter. In school, Wallace was a fantastic understudy. After secondary school, he proceeded with his instruction at Harvard University, where he got engaged with two Harvard papers, first the Advocate and afterward the Harvard Monthly. Subsequent to leaving school, he moved to New York City. He filled in as a columnist, and thought about an artistic profession. In any case, his dad urged Stevens to turn into a progressively functional profession in the law business. He filled in as a legal counselor for a couple of years in New York. He worked at various firms and afterward at the Fidelity and Deposit Company. He at last settled at the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, where he turned into the VP for an incredible remainder. It resembled Stevens drove two separate lives, one of a specialist and one as an artist. Stevens himself once said in a New York Times talk with, I like to believe I'm only a man, not an artist low maintenance, businessperson the rest. This is a lucky thing, taking into account how discourteous the ravens are. I don't partition my life, simply continue living. Huge numbers of Stevens' fans are regularly amazed when they learn of Stevens' life as a representative. As referenced before, Wallace Stevens' work mirrored his life in numerous ways. His girl, Holly, and his significant other, Elsie were the two motivations for his sonnets. The individuals, spots, and things in Stevens' private life all impacted his verse. He expounded on Florida, the Orient, his family, life, demise, religion, nature, and numerous different subjects. His verse had numerous novel topics too. He expounded on agnosticism, power, creative mind, dreams, God, and reality. In the course of his life, Stevens distributed a large number of his sonnets, his most notable are Harmonium, The Man With the Blue Guitar, Transport to Summer, and The Auroras of Autumn. He additionally composed composition, articles, and plays. Stevens peoms are intricate. So as to peruse the greater part of his verse, it's nessassary to have a word reference close by. Stevens has a tremendous jargon and he effectively utilizes it in his verse. Many have called his work profound becauses of the philosophical parts of his sonnets. One sonnet that I like, Contrary Thesis (II) was hard for me to peruse from the start. A passage from it is a genuine case of Stevens' diffrent utilization of language: ...He strolled with his year-old kid on his shoulder. The sun shone and the pooch yapped and the child dozed. The leaves, even the beetle, the green grasshopper. He needed and searched for a last shelter, From the blustering implications of winter What's more, the saints ? la mode. He strolled toward A theoretical, of which the sun, the pooch, the kid Were shapes. Cold was cooling the wide-moving swans. The leaves were falling like notes from a piano... - Contrary Thesis (II)(Collected Poems p.207) This peom is discussing a man searching for a shelter before winter comes. It is by all accounts looking at getting old, the manner in which the seasons change from pre-winter to winter. The man who is searching for asylum is by all accounts attempting to discover where his life is taking

Free sample - The Untold Story of Welfare Fraud. translation missing

The Untold Story of Welfare Fraud. The Untold Story of Welfare FraudThe Untold Story of Welfare Fraud surveys the results of the execution of the law concerning arrangement of monetary guide to poor families. It uncovers the defective character of the law which in reality forgot about no chance to get for individuals as they needed to pick whether to keep to the law or to leave their families without food. As indicated by Abramovitz (1988), ladies were insufficient secured by the administration and its laws as they couldn't make their own living without men. The accompanying article presents two kinds of factors which are basic for comprehension of the government assistance misrepresentation and the usage of the Welfare Fraud Diversion Program. The reliant variable is the measure of individuals who overstepped the law subject to troublesome life conditions just as the individuals who were indicted for government assistance fakes and got criminal records without violating the law. The autonomous factors are the intricacy of the application and consistence systems, the sex and training level of the guardians blamed for government assistance cheats, unlawful activities of the controlling specialists. The article shows that the measure of cheats was impacted by the execution of exacting cutoff points and measures which were in actuality planned for diminishing of the quantity of individuals getting a charge out of state monetary guide. The unit of examination of this investigation is the procedure of law implementation that was brought about by the current law which was planned for making a precise division as indicated by the level of the directed wrongdoings. As per Gatta (2005), the other looked into issue is the effect of the government assistance change to the quantity of related wrongdoings. As indicated by the article, low-pay ladies were incredibly affected by the law. Their lives and fate of their families was under the danger of termination on account of low quality degree of life and money related issues which happened at those occasions. The article portrays â€Å"the real factors of the ladies trapped in the snare of government assistance misrepresentation arraignment after the 1996 changes to the government assistance law†. O’Connor (2001) presents a sort of information â€Å"grounded practically speaking, in activism, and in the experience of the material hardship as well as on the reg ular operations of the economy†. The impact of the defective law on the quantity of infringement was inquired about through the quantitative and subjective investigation of the government assistance cheats' cases. The creators led a substance investigation of the Public Defender’s government assistance misrepresentation case records for the year 2001. They likewise looked into subjective information of the year 2005. It was done so as to discover any distinctions which could have occurred since the conduction of the primary research in 2001. The aftereffects of the two examinations were utilized to make the total picture of reasons prompting extortion conviction. As indicated by the contextual analysis the individuals blamed for government assistance fakes might be isolated into a few gatherings. The primary gathering includes individuals who deliberately violated the law so as to get cash. For the most part, they claimed to be abused or misdirect social specialists about their genuine salary and, in this manner, conned the administration. The subsequent gathering contains individuals who did everything conceivable to keep to the law however couldn't give data about the salary of their companions or accomplices as they didn't stay in contact with them. Candidates likewise frequently disregarded the standards as they couldn't obviously comprehend the methodology of pay revealing. Such cases were exceptionally regular considering that all ladies blamed for government assistance extortion didn't go to schools. At times the benefit of the family in the resulting month was higher than the money related guide limit and lady was thus blamed for government assistance misrepresentation however her yearly pay was still far underneath the destitution line. Those individuals didn't have any intension to mishandle the law or to carry out a wrongdoing. By and by, they were thought to be liable and gotten indistinguishable status of lawbreakers from those individuals who had led government assistance cheats purposefully. The third gathering incorporates people who were not permitted to give any data about earnings of their companions or accomplices. Such cases were likewise normal and for the most part spouses undermined their wives for detailing extra earnings. Ladies didn't have any decision as the main pay was brought by their spouses. The investigation of the instances of the second and third gatherings shows that those individuals didn't carry out any violations yet their criminalization was brought about by an inappropriate government's arrangement. The administration attempted to stop the influx of law infringement, and implemented so exacting revealing and management approach that non-blameworthy individuals were charged of misrepresentation also. The measure of criminal records was so high at that period that directing specialists had no opportunity to check whether wrongdoing was purposeful or non-deliberate. Blamed individuals had no assets for lawful help and couldn't ensure themselves appropriately. Thusly, individuals saw just the expanding number of lawbreakers without the setting creating this figure. It was generally utilized for avocation of the law change. Notwithstanding the procedure costs trouble that was taken by non liable people their criminal record blocked them from securing adequate positions and caused them to apply for the administrative guide and again carry out misrepresentation. Moreover, specialists has created exceptional estimates that permitted indicting for government assistance extortion and yet disregarded the security of help recipients. The â€Å"man in the house† strategy is a case of such techniques that were broadly utilized for searching for criminals. On the off chance that a man was found in the place of a lady getting money related guide she was implicated under report of pay with the end goal of government assistance extortion. It resembled a hover of neediness. The needy variable of wrongdoings' amount was plainly impacted by the free factors referenced previously. In diachronic point of view, such authorization of rules and laws might be contrasted with the activities that lead with the separation. The techniques applied by the creators permitted uncovering the conceivable sexism and division for sexual orientation jobs. It worked out that fathers sentenced for government assistance cheats were dependent upon common obligation while moms were blamed for wrongdoings. This unmistakably demonstrates sexual orientation segregation. In any case, these outcomes were not talked about in the paper however they worth further thought. The determination of the example in the primary investigation of 2001 cases may prove that the creators figured out how to break down similarly limited quantity of data. Then again, such measurement information can't be viewed as the main conceivable wellspring of data as it doesn't give the entire image of the issue. As it tends to be seen from the genuine examination, the underlying foundations of the issue might be discovered somewhere down in the history. Subsequently, the entire time frame beginning from the execution of the law until now ought to be examined for the away from of the issue. The technique for correlation of two unique examinations makes it simpler to estimate future advancement of the law and permits researchers discovering the methods of the program's improvement. Regardless of the creators were acceptable in the selection of factors, the arrangement of their decisions may become unsteady if different variables will be picked as key elements. There are other potential factors which may marginally change the imminent the examination got. This examination depends on the information gathered in San Diego, California and the outcomes might be diverse in different conditions of the US. The degree of government assistance misrepresentation would be distinctive in various states and relates with the criminal pace of the state. The measure of government assistance cheats may likewise fluctuate mulling over the measure of working spots and the normal personal satisfaction in the state. In such case, the exploration depicted in The Untold Story of Welfare Fraud would not mirror the circumstance in the US. What's more, the connection between's the measure of government assistance cheats and various poor families ought to be looked into. Maybe the expandi ng number of cheats was caused by severe measures as well as by the expanded number of poor families. At last, the portion of second and third gatherings was not demonstrated in the examination that prohibits the chance of the similar evaluation of the negative impacts of the legislative arrangement. The issue of the interconnection between the legitimate status of individuals under monetary guide and doubts with respect to their salary level and the pace of the genuine assistance from the administration ought to be contemplated as the issue of separation as indicated by the economic wellbeing. The law requirement framework doesn't give any opportunities for destitute individuals to escape the difficulty they got in. It gets hard for them to get a generously compensated line of work and to gain enough cash for living. What's more, the law giving money related guide to standard individuals ought to be justifiable for them. As it was at that point referenced the explanation of various infringement was the absence of comprehension of the law. To sum up everything referenced, it is valuable to speak to the law framework and to make the way toward helping individuals less hard for comprehension. Thus, the law would not be broken by individuals all the time in light of the enormous mea sure of subtleties yet rather it will bring an away from of the line which isolates law obeying residents from crooks. The exploration may be proceeded later on based on the information gathered from everywhere throughout the nation however not from the main city as the government assistance change spreads over the US. As per the examination, it might be said that the general image of issues identified with the past government assistance change is introduced, anyway extra reviews demonstrating the situation at the current second ought to be led. The quick improvement of the enactment makes even somewhat outdated data unessential for the exploration. It might be made in coo

Don’t Bother to Knock

Try not to Knock Different sorts of correspondence are utilized all through the film. I will constrain myself to the examination of kinds of correspondence among Jed and Nell. Nell is brought into the lodging, and meets the guardians of Bunny, the young lady she will be looking after children. The guardians whirl out, leaving straightforward directions. When Bunny heads to sleep, Nell is disregarded in the loft. At the point when she is separated from everyone else, all you see is the misery; accordingly, she sends a facial message.In the prologue to the guardians, and in her dealings with her uncle, she attempts to keep it together, and put on a social upbeat demeanor, utilizing the concealed self, however once alone, the cover is off. Then, another story goes on between Jed, a pilot, who’s been dating Lynn; a parlor artist in the lodging. Jed is clearly a â€Å"friends with benefits† type circumstance. Lyn isn't the sort to squeeze him to submit. She at last has gone to the choice that she can’t be with him any longer. Lyn says, â€Å"You need what I need. You do not have a getting heart. Pissed, Jed goes to his room, and afterward gets a brief look in the window over the way, of Nell, spruced up in an outfit, moving around without anyone else. In the long run, she sees him, and they start a nonverbal correspondence which may prompts a metamessage. He makes sense of her room number from the floor plan on the rear of the entryway, and calls her, moving from nonverbal correspondence to relational correspondence. They sit and chat on the telephone, gazing at one another from window to window, the puzzle of the association; relational fascination enters the game.Jed, a person out for a decent time, and desolate person, just observes the body from the start. He takes a gander at Nell, and sees a lovely lady and he thinks: I have made it big. There’s additionally certain resignation in Nell, a specific eagerness that makes you figure sh e would be â€Å"easy†, however this might be an overattribution from Jed. Jed having confidence believes that it will be entirely simple to catch this lady for the evening. To expand his exactness, Jed chose to visit the youngster. Over the staggering course of their next couple of scenes, when he welcomes himself over to her room, he starts to understand that something isn't right.They be a tease, they drink, they kiss, and through their connections, something opens up in Nell, she anticipates onto him every last bit of her deepest desires, which is disturbing, so from the get-go in the game, and brings to mind lethal fascination. She cherishes him quickly, she self-exposures, (first time they meet) demonstrating deficient relational aptitudes, consequently absence of compelling enthusiastic correspondence. Rather than exploiting what he thinks he merits at any rate (all things considered, she welcomed him over, she’s in a negligee, she knows precisely what he needs! , Jed utilizing his powerful and dynamic abilities of tuning in, shows his â€Å"understanding heart†; he just realizes that enticing this lady would not be right, however remains with her and offers assistance. When Nell and Jed neck on the lounge chair, the young lady whom Nell is tending astonishments the spooning couple, this drives the crazy Nell over the edge, compelling Jed to attempt to keep the sitter from hurting both herself and the youngster, and by and by demonstrating his capacity to relational peace promotion.

Adam makes a guest appearance

Adam makes a guest appearance Mollie has decided that she doesnt want to write any more this is how my interview weekend went entries. So seeing all she has to talk about these days are said weekends shes asked me to write something about my terribly interesting life. This is my first ever blog entryso bear with me. Me working on one of my planes There are a few constants in the universe, death, taxes, and MIT students complaining about how much work they have to do. I guarantee you that one day will not go by in your undergraduate careers without someone telling you about their 4 psets, 3 labs, and 2 papers that are all due tomorrow by 5pm. Theres just something therapeutic about complaining. So in keeping with MIT tradition I am now going to tell you about how much work I had to do last week, and you should cower in awe appropriately. Well start with course work. So I usually have 2 psets a week, but this week I also had a presentation in one of my HASS classes. The first pset was for 16.901 Computational Methods In Aerospace Engineering but I think a more appropriate name would be Lots of Taylor series and some MATLAB code that Adam does not understand. Id give this pset a 2 out of 5 on the assume the fetal position scale. Pset number two was for 16.05 Thermal Energy or more descriptively How to Build Jet Engines. While this class ranks much higher on the coolness scale (jet engines win over MATLAB any day), it is also proportionally higher on the assume the fetal position scale. But after 6 hours of analyzing Brayton cycles and figuring out the delta s of compressor stages, Im one step closer to being a rocketerrr airplane scientist. The high point of the week, surprisingly, was my 21W.785 presentation. The class is centered around a semester-long group project where we create a webpage. Now its not like were just setting up a myspace page and taking a nap for the rest of the semester. Each project is quite involved; our group, for example, is making a customizable virtual tour of MITs campus complete with video clips and 360-degree panoramas of select locations. This week we had to give a 20 minute presentation outlining out site and our plans for the semester. The presentation was supposed to include technical specs and mockups of our site. The problem with this was that no one in my group knew HTML, PHP, CSS, or any other form of web publishing short of writing something in Word and saving it as .html. So after 3 hours of trying to learn CSS I went to the Dreamweaver website. 3 hours after that I had a totally sweet looking homepage. Granted, none of the links worked, but there were pictures and a pretty rollo ver navigation menu. Long story short, our presentation went exceptionally well, and I learned that Im actually pretty good at web design. (Editors note: Except that he doesnt understand anything else about computers.) In other news: Adam Woodworth woke up at the crack of dawn this morning to go fly airplanes. I have two jobs this semester. One is my internship at Draper Labs which has been ongoing since last June, and the other involves helping the 16.82x (Aero/Astro senior capstone) students finish and test fly their airplanes for the AIAA Design Build Fly competition. Both of these jobs involve lots of flying, and flight tests are best conducted on warm, calm, rain-free days. The problem is that its March in New England and most days dont meet the aforementioned criteria. Thus on the few flyable days we had this week both Draper and 16.82 wanted me to fly. Since I have not yet created the technology that allows me to be in two places at the same time, I had to wake up very early to go fly for Draper so that I could then go fly for 16.82 and then go to class. Luckily for me, I like flying more than I like sleep. (Editors note: Thats not what hes singing when the alarm goes off at 7 AM) Well that was my week in all of its hardcoreness. I hope that you were impressed (I know Chuck Norris was). Provided that you didnt hate the entry and found me at least mildly amusing, Mollie wants me to write another entry about my research work. So hopefully Ill talk to you all later

Adam makes a guest appearance

Adam makes a guest appearance Mollie has decided that she doesnt want to write any more this is how my interview weekend went entries. So seeing all she has to talk about these days are said weekends shes asked me to write something about my terribly interesting life. This is my first ever blog entryso bear with me. Me working on one of my planes There are a few constants in the universe, death, taxes, and MIT students complaining about how much work they have to do. I guarantee you that one day will not go by in your undergraduate careers without someone telling you about their 4 psets, 3 labs, and 2 papers that are all due tomorrow by 5pm. Theres just something therapeutic about complaining. So in keeping with MIT tradition I am now going to tell you about how much work I had to do last week, and you should cower in awe appropriately. Well start with course work. So I usually have 2 psets a week, but this week I also had a presentation in one of my HASS classes. The first pset was for 16.901 Computational Methods In Aerospace Engineering but I think a more appropriate name would be Lots of Taylor series and some MATLAB code that Adam does not understand. Id give this pset a 2 out of 5 on the assume the fetal position scale. Pset number two was for 16.05 Thermal Energy or more descriptively How to Build Jet Engines. While this class ranks much higher on the coolness scale (jet engines win over MATLAB any day), it is also proportionally higher on the assume the fetal position scale. But after 6 hours of analyzing Brayton cycles and figuring out the delta s of compressor stages, Im one step closer to being a rocketerrr airplane scientist. The high point of the week, surprisingly, was my 21W.785 presentation. The class is centered around a semester-long group project where we create a webpage. Now its not like were just setting up a myspace page and taking a nap for the rest of the semester. Each project is quite involved; our group, for example, is making a customizable virtual tour of MITs campus complete with video clips and 360-degree panoramas of select locations. This week we had to give a 20 minute presentation outlining out site and our plans for the semester. The presentation was supposed to include technical specs and mockups of our site. The problem with this was that no one in my group knew HTML, PHP, CSS, or any other form of web publishing short of writing something in Word and saving it as .html. So after 3 hours of trying to learn CSS I went to the Dreamweaver website. 3 hours after that I had a totally sweet looking homepage. Granted, none of the links worked, but there were pictures and a pretty rollo ver navigation menu. Long story short, our presentation went exceptionally well, and I learned that Im actually pretty good at web design. (Editors note: Except that he doesnt understand anything else about computers.) In other news: Adam Woodworth woke up at the crack of dawn this morning to go fly airplanes. I have two jobs this semester. One is my internship at Draper Labs which has been ongoing since last June, and the other involves helping the 16.82x (Aero/Astro senior capstone) students finish and test fly their airplanes for the AIAA Design Build Fly competition. Both of these jobs involve lots of flying, and flight tests are best conducted on warm, calm, rain-free days. The problem is that its March in New England and most days dont meet the aforementioned criteria. Thus on the few flyable days we had this week both Draper and 16.82 wanted me to fly. Since I have not yet created the technology that allows me to be in two places at the same time, I had to wake up very early to go fly for Draper so that I could then go fly for 16.82 and then go to class. Luckily for me, I like flying more than I like sleep. (Editors note: Thats not what hes singing when the alarm goes off at 7 AM) Well that was my week in all of its hardcoreness. I hope that you were impressed (I know Chuck Norris was). Provided that you didnt hate the entry and found me at least mildly amusing, Mollie wants me to write another entry about my research work. So hopefully Ill talk to you all later

Matrices on the ACT

Lots of students have minor panic attacks when they are first faced with matrices on the ACT Math Test, but never fear! Even if matrices look completely foreign to you, a quick read through this blog will calm your nerves. 🙂 Luckily, matrix questions are quite rare on the ACT (you might not see a single one throughout the 60 questions on the ACT Math Test!), and require only basic addition and subtraction skills (or *cough* a TI-83 calculator *cough*) to solve. If you can add 5 and 6, you’ll be fine! If you just need a quick refresher, check out the video below. Otherwise, read on! ACT Matrix Basics The word matrix refers to a rectangular-looking box filled with numbers arranged in rows and columns Each number in the matrix is called an element. When it comes to matrices on the test, you really just need to know the basics: First of All, Matrices Are Referred to by Their Dimensions. Matrices can come in all sorts of sizes. We write the size of a matrix first with its number of rows and then its number of columns. This, for example, is a 3 x 2 matrix. 3 rows and 2 columns: Scalar Multiplication You might see a question on the ACT that asks you do what is called scalar multiplication. This means that we are multiplying a matrix by an ordinary number. Every entry inside the matrix just gets multiplied by that number. Matrix Addition You might also see a question on the ACT on adding or subtracting matrices. Important note: you can only add or subtract two matrices of exactly the same dimensions. We add or subtract matrices by adding or subtracting the corresponding numbers (the numbers that are in the same â€Å"spot† on each matrix). Notice that the size of the matrices is the same, and that each element in the first matrix is added to the corresponding element in the second matrix to get the corresponding element in the third matrix. -3 + -2 = -5. With that understanding, we can solve for x by writing a simple equation: x + 9 = 11; x = 2. Multiplying Matrices All right, I saved the trickiest for last. You can only multiply matrices if the number of columns in first matrix equals the number of rows in the second matrix. When we multiply matrices, the product matrix will have the same number of rows as first matrix and the same number of columns as the second. For example, the product of a 2 x 3 matrix and a 3 x 2 matrix would be a 3 x 3 matrix. In order to find the entry in the first column, first row of the product matrix, we are going to multiply each number in the first row of the first matrix by its corresponding number in the first column of the second matrix and add the products together. For the entry in the second row, second column, we will do the same thing with the second row of the first matrix and the second column of the second matrix: In order to completely fill out this matrix, we would have to do 9 calculations, but don’t fret, the ACT is more likely to give you smaller matrices or matrices with more zeros or ask you to find just one entry in a matrix. Let’s look at a question involving subtracting matrices. Guided ACT Matrix Practice Question What is the sum of x and y? To answer this, we will set up two equations to solve for x and y independently. 16 – 2 = x and 3 – (- = x and 7 = y Their sum is 14 + 7 = 21. Sometimes a variable will be introduced to stand for an entire matrix. Let’s look at an example: Carefully subtract each corresponding element. The Answer Now try a practice question on your own! More ACT Matrix Practice Questions What is the solution to the matrices? (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) The Answer Explanation The correct answer is (A). To subtract matrices, subtract each corresponding element, as shown above. Remember that subtracting a negative number becomes addition. With practice, you’ll see that the math involved in ACT matrix questions is rarely challenging – just keep the rows and columns lined up and you can’t help but get them right!