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</div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">My Dear Phellow Phriammers, </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">Over the years I have asked you some doozies. Still, I am pretty sure this the stupidest question I have ever asked this forum, so I am at your mercy.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">I am in one of those situations where language and mathematics
are rubbing together and driving crazy.<span> </span><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">Let say that my patio is ten steps down from my back
door.<span> </span>I have two cats, <span> </span>Dee and Ess, and<span> </span>Dee is dominant to Ess.<span> </span>So, if I go out to let them in, and I
find<span> </span>Ess on step -2<span> </span>and<span>
</span>Dee on step -8,<span> </span>I know I have an
unstable situation. I fear that I will have a cat fight as Dee rushes past Ess to claim his rightful position by the preferred cat bowl. Intuitively, I would<span> </span>rate the degree of instability as a positive 6.<span> </span>
How would I compare the two
numbers mathematically to get +6?
<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">But let’s say that for theoretical reasons I now want to conceive
of the situation as a degree of <b><i>stability</i></b>, with negative stability
corresponding<span> </span>to instability.<span> </span><span> </span>Now,
according<span> </span>to my index, the situation is
a minus 6.<span> </span>How would I compare the two
numbers mathematically to get a -6?<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">The situation I am trying to model here is the origin of the
notion of static stability in meteorology.<span>
</span>Static Stability has a lot to do with differential lapse rates, the degree to which temperature declines with increasing altitude.<span> L</span>apse rates are minus numbers.<span> </span>So a parcel is unstable if it has a lower
lapse rate (a less minus lapse rate?) than surrounding parcels, and the greater the absolute value the
difference between them, the greater the instability.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">I asked “George” (GPT) to help me with this, but he (?)
suggested I just take absolute values and give them whatever sign I want. However, somebody told me, way back when, that taking absolute values was not kosher in
mathematics.<span> </span>(Why else would the
variance be the mean SQUARED deviation about<span>
</span>the mean?).<span> <br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span>So there it is. <br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span>Yeah. I know. <br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span>Nick <br></span></p></div></div></div></div>
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