I’m sure some would wonder, “What the hell does dvdt.dev mean? Why would you make that your personal brand?”
Well there’s a bit of a story to it. It all started when I was 9… (I wish I was kidding, but I’ll try to make this interesting.)
The Set Up
Shocking noone, I was a nerdy kid. I was gifted an encyclopedia set by my uncle when I was 9 or 10. I read it cover to cover. All 26 or 28 books. The sections on physics were some of my favorites. Especially the sections on astrophysics, astrodynamics, and celestial orbital mechanics. Okay so I was not just nerdy but weird too…
I remember the wonder I felt realizing that these unimaginably huge celestial objects were governed by rules which were totally knowable and predictable. It’s the first time I can recall something that was previously “magic” to me becoming demystified in a way that I could truly play with it in my mind. I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since and it’s the reason I love learning.
Learning Calculus
There were weird math equations that I didn’t understand and I asked my uncle about them. He explained that they were calculus equations and were way above my level. I wouldn’t have classes that would teach them until at least late high school, but likely not until college. My uncle always encouraged me to learn though, and he gave me his old precalculus and calculus textbooks. For the next couple years I would use them to teach myself calculus.
Fast forward real quick to high school in Mrs. Cloninger’s precalculus class when we had a test on deriving polynomials. They were very simple equations so I could do them in my head at this point. I submitted my test with just the solutions and no shown work. She actually accused me of cheating. I was in pretty deep trouble and my mother was called in for a meeting. After some explaining, Mrs. Cloninger agreed to let me prove it by taking a different test in front of her. In a few minutes, she watched me write the solutions and give her the test. She was pretty shocked but for the rest of that class I never had to show any work.
Okay, so back to the website domain…
dvdt is a reference to the equation for acceleration: a = dv / dt. Delta V over delta T is the change in velocity over the change in time. On Earth the gravitational acceleration is 9.8m/s/s.
dvdt.dev is an homage to my uncle Scott who was the most pivotal person in my life. He recognized that I loved to learn and always tried to encourage me to explore and gave me resources. He was never overbearing about it but just made things available to me and let my natural curiosity run with it. He’s a huge reason I am who I am today and I am forever grateful. Scott passed away in 2021 and I miss him all the time.