Infinity

[Arkilogue]

Applied physics.

Applied as in calculating how many boxes you can safely load on to a fedex truck ? If you are claiming to be a scientist with a university degree then I think that would open some very challenging conversations here on AF.

Applied as in calculating external relative mass, lean, integrity of material and variability of wind influence on setting the directed catastrophic collapse of tree into motion all as an intuitive function honed over 16 years of hands on application. I also must often correctly intuit a counter vector balancing the above equation with a pull rope at variable angle to the drop line and degree of leverage on the tree depending how high up I go. My life, livelyhood, and other peoples property depend on my successful execution.

In case I cannot drop the tree with a single cut I must climb it, incorporating a whole new internal equation: The variable strength/integrity of my body, the constant of vertical gravity, the decreasing integrity of the wood holding me up and the increasing influence of variable horizontal wind. I have learned to look up wind at the canopies of other trees to time cuts with an otherwise invisible ebb and flow. All working together internally as a constant, moment to moment intuitive calculation. Up there, no objective measurements are really possible or practical for getting the job done...and inaccuracy is fatal.

Up there, I must account for the opposing reaction of felling a large vertical top on the flexible point I cut it from...that I am also attached to. It pushes back and "spring loads" the remaining spar only to be thrown free, leaving it to vibrate in place like a giant tuning fork. If the amplitude is too large I can be flung from the tree (at-least paddle-balled a bit being tied to it) and there is a sweet spot (bad spot) to cut a tree which produces maximum throw. Between 1/2 and 2/3 the way up.

There is also nodal frequency to be aware of if the top spar is tied to the tree for lowering purposes. I once tied the 1/4 top of a Norfolk Pine to the trunk in front of me after trimming all lower branches. The thing is basically a pole. When that falling top hit the end of the rope it was half the length of the remaining spar. It yanked the tree into nodal vibration like the number "8" and rag dolled me up there. The solution was to tie the top about 1/5 the way down the remaining spar, about 10 ft below my feet. The resulting yank did not produce stable vibration and largely canceled itself out....still scary non-the less.

Take the large branch going horizontally out over someone's roof: There are a relatively infinite numbers of ways I could divide/cut it but very few that result in no harm done to the roof or me. I select the cuts based on correct estimation of mass and length in rational free-fall and the integrity of the wood, the ability to both throw and hang onto itself. The size of the branch or quanta of the tree changes all these variables.

If I drop branches in the wrong order I end up with a gigantic birds nest stuck in the tree, easily tripling the amount of time the job takes and completely blowing my price estimate. My lively-hood depends on getting the order of collapse correct.

In the middle of a job, my mind is a whirlwind of force balance calculations as a continuity. There is only pass and fail...and most of those potential failures would be the last one I make in this life.

To sum up what I do as a career, I organize the order of quantum collapse in physical, organic fractal systems by Newtonian equal/opposite reaction. I am the pen, paper and the calculation in execution. And there is a great deal of conscious and subconscious motivation to get it right.

If surfing can help scientists get a better handle on string theory... http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cros...-academia/

...then perhaps a professional Arborist has some developed insight on the connected and branching structures of the universe above and below the human scale of things.