{"id":51083,"date":"2010-03-06T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-06T00:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.technet.microsoft.com\/heyscriptingguy\/2010\/03\/06\/hey-scripting-guy-weekend-scripter-how-much-wood\/"},"modified":"2010-03-06T00:01:00","modified_gmt":"2010-03-06T00:01:00","slug":"hey-scripting-guy-weekend-scripter-how-much-wood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/hey-scripting-guy-weekend-scripter-how-much-wood\/","title":{"rendered":"Hey, Scripting Guy! Weekend Scripter: How Much Wood?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Bookmark<\/p>\n

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Microsoft Scripting Guy Ed Wilson here. I am out in my woodworking shop today, and I am laying out an arch that I will use to create a curved top for a box. I need to know how much wood will be required to make that arch—<\/span>the radius of the arch. Another use might be to measure for drywall when creating an arch over a door. How do I do this? I could use a pencil and a string to draw the arch, and then try to use a tape measure to bend along the arch and arrive at the distance that way; however, a simple formula would be easier to use. The formula is seen here:<\/p>\n

(X\/2)2 <\/sup>+ Y2<\/sup> \/ 2Y = R<\/p>\n

The formula can be visualized by looking at the following image. <\/p>\n

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\"Image<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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A Windows PowerShell function to perform this calculation would save some time. To create the function in Windows PowerShell, I will need to use the static POW<\/b> method from the system.math<\/b> .NET Framework class. Here is the function:<\/p>\n

Function Get-Arch
{
 <\/span>Param($x, $y)
 <\/span>([math]::POW($x\/2,2) + [math]::POW($y,2)) \/ (2*$y)
}<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

To use the function, you need to either edit the script containing the function as seen in the following image, or you will need to add it to your profile, a module, or dot source it into your current session. You do not need to supply parameter names because you can use positional arguments.<\/p>\n

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\"Image<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

The key to unlocking the ability of Windows PowerShell to create useful formulas is to leverage the static methods from the system.math<\/b> class. You can easily see them by using the Get-Member<\/b> cmdlet, as shown here:<\/p>\n

PS C:> [math] | Get-Member -Static | Format-Table name, membertype -AutoSize<\/p>\n

Name            <\/span>MemberType
—-            <\/span>———-
Abs                 <\/span>Method
Acos                <\/span>Method
Asin                <\/span>Method
Atan                <\/span>Method
Atan2               <\/span>Method
BigMul              <\/span>Method
Ceiling             <\/span>Method
Cos                 <\/span>Method
Cosh                <\/span>Method
DivRem              <\/span>Method
Equals              <\/span>Method
Exp                 <\/span>Method
Floor               <\/span>Method
IEEERemainder       <\/span>Method
Log      <\/span>           <\/span>Method
Log10               <\/span>Method
Max                 <\/span>Method
Min                 <\/span>Method
Pow                 <\/span>Method
ReferenceEquals     <\/span>Method
Round               <\/span>Method
Sign             \n   <\/span>Method
Sin                 <\/span>Method
Sinh                <\/span>Method
Sqrt                <\/span>Method
Tan                 <\/span>Method
Tanh                <\/span>Method
Truncate            <\/span>Method
E                 <\/span>Property
PI                <\/span>Property<\/p>\n

PS C:><\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

Most of the time, the methods and properties are self-explanatory. When they are not, use MSDN<\/font><\/a> to fill in the gaps.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Well, that is all there is to messing around with arches. If you want to know exactly what we will be looking at tomorrow, follow us on Twitter<\/font><\/a> or Facebook<\/font><\/a><\/span>. If you have any questions, send e-mail to us at scripter@microsoft.com<\/font><\/a> or post your questions on the Official Scripting Guys Forum<\/font><\/a>. See you tomorrow. Until then, peace.<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Ed Wilson and Craig Liebendorfer, Scripting Guys<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/b> <\/p>\n<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Microsoft Scripting Guy Ed Wilson here. I am out in my woodworking shop today, and I am laying out an arch that I will use to create a curved top for a box. I need to know how much wood will be required to make that arch—the radius of the arch. Another use might […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":595,"featured_media":87096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[69,3,4,61,45],"class_list":["post-51083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scripting","tag-functions","tag-scripting-guy","tag-scripting-techniques","tag-weekend-scripter","tag-windows-powershell"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":"

  Microsoft Scripting Guy Ed Wilson here. I am out in my woodworking shop today, and I am laying out an arch that I will use to create a curved top for a box. I need to know how much wood will be required to make that arch—the radius of the arch. Another use might […]<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/595"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}