Centroids!

Centroid are the centers of masses, mostly used in construction of buildings through geometric shapes. Finding the centroid allows engineers to create a safer building, and a stronger one.
We had a worksheet, 2.1.1, and in the worksheet, we were asked to compute multiple centroids of usual geometric shapes, such as rectangles, circles, and triangles.
It was all pretty simple, until there were crazy shapes introduced, like a rectangle with negative space in forms of a semicircle, and a rectangle.
After that we had to create our own centroid both in reality and a virtual one on MDSolids.
MDSolids gives you a very accurate measurements that you enter into the program, as well as the exact placement of the centroid.
Pictures will be added

Cardboard Canoe Challenge!

I earned 15 Achievements on this challenge!
I worked with Wes, Israel, and Chase for this two week challenge. We worked diligently, smart, and safe. In the end, we had the best canoe in our class, winning almost every challenge.
Achievements:
Design Achievements
1. Design the problem and Brainstorm solutions
     The problem was that we had to build a boat using only cardboard and duct tape
      We needed our boat to be:

• strong
• sleek
• well floating
• water resistant
• high walls
• reinforced structure
• good wall joints
• double walled and floored
• maneuverable
• covered completely in duct tape\
• small enough that we don't need to do anything outside of class
• corners damage resistant and covered well
• ability to have a person in, completely dry
• ability to have two people in, completely dry
• balance
• large
• conserve duct tape
• fast
• easy to move, not too heavy
• colorful and artistic

2. Criteria and Constraints
     Our main criteria that we followed in this challenge was the boats ability to cross the pool
     Our main constraint in this challenge was to completely cover the boat in duct tape, well
3. Sketch Ideas

4. Prototype Ideas

5. Select an approach

6. Build It!

7. The Fastest

24.57 seconds is how long it took us to reach the other side, we smoked the other teams by at least 5 seconds, maybe more!

8. The Farthest

We traveled about 250 yards, which is 10 laps, and we could have gone farther, but we had to start the other challenges.

9. The Longest

We were the last team standing, we could have stayed up for at least a half of an hour, but we tested the boats limits and fit 460 pounds in it.

10. Balance Master

We had both Chase and Israel stand up in our boat

11. Videographer

If you want to see the video of our boat, go to Wes's blog at www.ipodman2001.blogspot.com for it. I would upload it here, but he has the iphone 5 and it will not allow me to post it on here from a PC.

12. Feedback

1. Strong floor really supported our weight well
2. The front and back walls were well duct taped and remained powerful, even after we had sunk
3. Our swimmer/pullers really moved quickly and dominated the other teams
4. The side walls were weak----We should have put on more layers of cardboard, and it would have held for a lot longer
5. Our vibrant colors really added to our design
6. We could have duct taped the boat better---ultimately was our slow demise, should have taken more times, maybe at a lunch, to duct tape it better
7. Our boat design was copied by other teams, but ours worked the best
8. We had a very hydrodynamic design for gliding through the water
9. We had a lighter person, Chase, to go in the boat at first, but it could even hold me
10. We mangled the original box design to create our own formation---We could have made a V-bottom

13. Redesign
    If we were to create another boat, we would most likely use the same design, except with making the walls more stable.

14. Make your own achievement
Our achievement was to have our boat hold over 450 pounds! I think we can call this achievement the "Heavy Loader". We had Wes, Israel and Chase in our boat at the same, and we could have fit more weight if we had enough room! I would approximate our total capacity around 500 pounds.
15. How low did you go?
     We went down only about a suprising 2-3 inches! The unit weight of water in pounds is 1.936 pounds/cubic foot. Chase weighed about 150 pounds. With the math that I did, I divided Chase's weight divided by the unit weight of water, and then divided that by 12, which would give us inches. The final answer is about 6.5 inches, which is pretty close to 3 inches, and it makes sense.

West Point Bridge Design

An opportunity to gain some more points to keep my grade up, I saw Mr. Olsen's post about building a West Point Bridge in our program on our computers. After a few different tries of making and adjusting multiple types of bridges, I developed a pretty well supported and stable bridge.

I attempted to keep the price down as much as I could which turned out to be pretty close to $400,000.

I learned a couple of engineering principles from this as well as physics.

After testing and retesting, I realized that the tension of both the compression and tension have to be under 1. I also discovered that the best way to support a bridge is from about with small, triangular piers that alleviate the compression and tension as you go to higher piers.

3rd Annual Mousetrap Racecar Challenge!

We developed, created, tested, reiterated, and retested our small, makeshift cars in this past week.
I was in a group with my classmate, Wes, and we built a sturdy but slow car, not winning any of the speed achievements, but we did win some other significant ones.
We also maintained the criteria and constraints listed under the challenge page on Mr. Olsen's blog.

All together, Wes and I managed to claim 12 achievements.



Our Race car

 


















Achievements:
Design Stage:
1. Brainiac

10 Concepts/Ideas:
*Lightweight
*Speed with Distance
*Small Wheels
*Small Body
*Wind Resistance
*Rubber Wheels
*Straight Shooter
*Strength
*Aerodynamic
*Small use of materials

2. Visualize It


Our first Sketch




















Build Stage:

3. Build It

4. The Price of Glory

The least we could do is $17 because we used

4 wheels, 3 holds, 1 mousetrap, 1 string, 4 Bars, 2 Axles, and 2 Blocks

Test Stage:

5. The Distance Event

6. Acceleration Event

7. Competitor

8. Feedback

+: It was sturdy, and it moved

Change: Could have used less materials to create our car

?: What would be a good way to change our car to make it faster/travel farther?

!: Make a more aerodynamic car, perhaps with shorter axles

9. Rework

10. Game Changer

*I think that adding a new rule that all axles have to be used. There was a constraint that we had to use two axles, but it did not say that we had to make use of them. My new rule would be to make both of the axles on the ground, and not like an axle on the ground then one just hanging in the air.

11. Name it

*I would change the Led Foot Challenge name to "If you're not first, you're last".

12. Leave it cleaner than you found it

*Wes and I dissasembled out cars completely, even if we found some of the parts already assembled, we also kept any trash off of our desk and placed it in the trash can.

I'm Back

This is the first post on here in a while, we just got back from summer vacation about a month ago, and our engineering class has been mainly working on our simple machines packet. Although long and slightly complicated, it is pretty intensive learning. It involves our engineering and problem solving skills as well as our mathematical skills. As you will see in my next post, we have spent the past week doing a mousetrap racecar challenge. Well that pretty much sums up our first month of the school year.

Design Thinking

After some excellent presentations from my fellow students, I decided to transfer some of the note I jotted down.
Empathize:

• Empathy is used to get to know the customer and what he/she wants

Define:

• As everyone knows, it is finding out and stating the problem that needs to be solved.

Ideate:

• Ideate is summed up by the creation and brainstorming of ideas.

Prototype:

• The actual physical representation of your idea, including the constraints.

Test:

• Fail early, fail often! Putting the prototype into action and refining it to solve the defined problem.

Architecture Project

We are working on an architecture project. I am partners with Sean Lee and our client is Mr. Lemei. He asked us to create a storage room for his physics equipment. I have made qa sketch in CAD, it is not very good but it is just the beggining layout.

I made the model in Minecraft. 1 foot is equal to 1 block, except vertically, which i changed to 3 feet per block

Influential Architects

We watched 10 short videos about influential architects and were asked to record what stood out to us from each architect.

1. Miles van der Rohe: He is one of the fathers of modern architecture because of his extensive use of steel, glass, and lightweight structures. He coined the phrase "Less is more".
2. Shin Takamatsu: His buildings are original, ascetic, and inventions. His buildings all have a weird look to them, like a machine. He was an innovative genius who had a different view of structures.
3. Andrea Palladia: He is famous for the use of proportions in his works.
4. Etienne Louis Boulle: Based off of the Greeks and Romans, he expanded their buildings with symmetry and expanding the sizes.
5. Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris (Le Corbusier): Considered one of the first modern architects, he was very interested in designing a new way of urban living. Developed and used a unique system of proportions.
6. Frank Furness: Taking the Victorian style, Furness uses a common architectural language to oversize, squeeze, stretch, or over accentuate buildings.
7. Frank Lloid Wright: Known as one of the greatest American architects of all time, Wright used and is known for his extensive use of free flowing forms.
8. Antoni Gaudi: Breaking from traditional lines and forms, his buildings prove that buildings do not have to be normal or by certain guildlines.
9. Tadao Ando: Using deliberate, bold, and serious forms, and the use of concrete, his building are sublime and beautiful, using water and light in his elements.
10. Coop Himmelblau: Using deconstructionism, Coop Himmelblau changed the way we look at buildings, with the unique, shuffled and misplaced styles of buildings.

Marshmallow Challenge

Sean Lee, Israel, Chase, and I competed against the class in a marshmallow challenge in which we had to create the highest free standing structure with the marshmallow on top. We had twenty pieces of raw pasta, a foot of tape, a marshmallow, and a piece of string. In the beginning, we made a long and drawn out structure that would have worked if we had more time and more supplies, would have worked, but in the end, we made two triangular bases taped together with pasta bundled at the top. We did not use the string at all, but we used all of the pasta and tape, but we didn't even use the tape. In the very end, our structure stood at about 25-26 centimeters tall, winning the challenge as the Rise Against Plastic team.

TED Challenge 2012

1) What is the TED organization about?

The TED organization is about the spreading of useful ideas and knowledge intended to educate and introduce a variety of useful topics to everyone. TED stands for Technology, Engineering, and Design.

2) What is the purpose of their website and how does the functionality of their site support that?

The purpose of the sight is to offer free knowledge and inspiration from the world's most inspired thinkers. The functionality of the website supports it by uploading thousands of videos and speeches by thinkers, free, of course, and easy to access, displaying various videos as soon as you load the page.

3) As Engineers and Problem Solvers, which topic areas (the choices from the "Show talks related to:" section on the sidebar) are of most interest to us? Justify your answer.

I believe that the most interesting areas to engineers are the design, technology, and global issues tabs because we use design to come up with solutions to problems, technology to arrange what constraints and what we can do with them, and global problems because some of the problems may need engineers to come up with a solution to them.

4) Based on your previous answer, what are 3 talks (videos) on the site that appear like they would be of most interest to you as an Engineer/Problem Solver? Justify your choices.

Pranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology, this talk solved the problem of humans being distant from our technology, how it is nothing like us, so Pranav created a solution where we use our bodies and surroundings to enact with this new technology, currently hung around our necks.

Eben Bayer: Are mushrooms the new plastic?, Eben Bayer is a very Eco-friendly man, and he has his own company that takes an organic (really -- it's based on mycelium, a living, growing organism) adhesive that turns agriwaste into a foam-like material for packaging and insulation. He proposes that instead of our widespread use of plastic, we can use mushrooms, combined with other organic compounds, and make a safe to use plastic.

Klaus Stadlmann: The world’s smallest 3D printer, this man, Klaus, actually decided to invent the world's smallest 3-D printer when his laser printer broke while attempting to print off his thesis for his Vienna Technical University PhD.

5) Each student will watch a unique video (clear your choice with me... first come, first served!). Watch the video. Embed the video in your blog post and create a bulletized outline of the key issues presented in the talk.

http://www.ted.com/talks/pranav_mistry_the_thrilling_potential_of_sixthsense_technology.html

• Humans are too distant from technology
• Need a way to enact better with technology
• Use our bodies and motions to enact with new technology

6) How could you get involved in the field/technology/issue you chose to hear about? What experience/skills/training/education would you need to learn to get involved with this field?

I believe that to get involved with the technology advancement, I would need the education and skills of the engineering of the product, to know it well, inside and out. I would also need a lot of experience with robotics, like maybe a prostetic limb that the person could control, and then advance from there.

2.3.1a Miniature Train

Almost Spring Break 2012, and in class we have been constructing a miniature train in our CAD Inventor software programs.
Here are my sketches for the train body, stack, hitch magnet, hitch peg, wheel, axle peg, linkage arm, linkage peg, and cow catcher assemblies of the train, I still need to assemble them all together and create the straight track piece, but that can wait until after Break.

Egg Drop Challenge

My partner, Sean Lee, and I, competed against the class last week in the Second Annual Egg Drop Challenge. We used an awesome elevator design, which involved a plank that leaned over the edge, taped it down and added counterbalances to the other side, so it would not fall, hurting someone. It also involved a long piece of string, a small cardboard box, more rocks, a ton of dominoes, a lot of duct tape, and socks. We used the box as a container for the egg, and inside we had a sock as a cushion on the bottom of the egg, and we used the other sock for a top cushion. We used some of the dominoes inside the box with the egg in order to create more weight in the box. On the other side, we used duct tape to make a counterbalance with rocks, slightly heavier, probably 10-15 grams more, than the box with the egg. We used the string to attach the two parts (the box with the egg/counterbalance) and then we let it go on the plank, and it slowly, safely, and surely lowered down to the ground without the egg breaking. We earned a lot of achievements, listed below.

Achievements:

• Brainstorming:
• Create a sketch of one possible solution.
• Create a sketch of another possible solution.
• Create a sketch of a third possible solution.
• Use a decision matrix

	Size	Weight	Safety	Speed (slow)	Accuracy	Total
Parachute	1	1	3	3	2	9
Elevator	3	3	1	1	1	9
Wings and Parachute	2	2	2	2	3	11

• Material Preparation:
• Generate a list of materials required for build day
• Document a plan to ensure materials are brought in on block day
• Sean Lee will bring in the egg, cardboard box, foam/bubble wrap, and masking tape. I will bring in the wood plank, rocks/counterbalances, and the long string
• Size:
• Your materials fit inside a printer paper box
• Weight:
• Your materials weigh less than 500 grams
• Drop Accuracy:
•  You hit the butcher paper!
• You hit inside the third ring!
• You hit inside the second ring!
• You hit inside the first ring!
• You hit the Bullseye!
• Drop Time:
• Your solution takes more than 2 seconds to hit the target!
• Your solution takes more than 3 seconds to hit the target!
• Your solution takes more than 4 seconds to hit the target!
• Your solution takes more than 5 seconds to hit the target!
• Egg Resilience:
• Your egg didn't break in any way! (awarded three times)
• Your egg didn't break in any way! (awarded three times)
• Your egg didn't break in any way! (awarded three times)
• Calculations:
• Used arithmetic to calculate the amount of weight needed for the counterbalance
• Used geometry in the size and measurements in the box
• Used algebra to find out how long it would take for the box to reach the ground
• Other:
• Helped set up the Bullseys

In Total: 24 Achievements

Here is our product in action:

The Truth

Awesome problem flow chart

Khan Academy

I watched the Khan Academy video about the events and summarizing of World War II and the Vietnam War.
http://www.khanacademy.org/humanities---other/history/v/us-history-overview-3---wwii-to-vietnam
That is the link to the 15 minute long video

Sustain:

I really enjoyed this video because of its great historical content. It accurately and quickly summarizes major happenings in between World War II and the Vietnam War. If we were learning this in our regular history class, it might have taken one 50 minute period to cover the topics. On Khan Academy, the topics were covered in less than 15 minutes and I understood the subject to the fullest.

Change:

The only thing I would change about this video is that I would put in a little bit more words and space the information out a little bit more, because all of the major event were cramped into a little space.

I believe that the "flipping the classroom" paradigm is great and it should be applied in schools nowadays because, as I said, I learned a lot about the events between the wars in a small amount of time.

2.1.6 CAD Sketches

We are currently working on creating objects by replicating them from a piece of paper into Inventor.

We were asked to make six sketches.

Balsa Wood Airplanes (Gliders)

For the past couple of weeks, my partner, Sean Lee, and I built a Balsa Wood Airplane. It was a long and tedious project, but it was fun, especially when we were able to fly them in the gym. We had a few challenges to achieve when we flew the airplanes, like the farthest flown, the longest flight, and the highest height reached. Our Balsa Wood Airplane achieved the longest flight, competing with Sammy, Israel, and Chase. On the other hand, we had to make a ton of adjustments with the eggshell white tape, which basically threw us out of the Best Decorated Flyer contest. We had to make a ton of adjustment, including fixing a broken wing and changing the tilt of the plane. Overall, it was an awesome project, I enjoyed the construction and viewing our projects in action.
My partner and I used the Project Lead the Way Design Process when we identified the constraints and criteria, finding out what we could do, based on our materials. We also tested and evaluated how the plane flew, as shown by the pictures below. Lastly, we refined the glider to make an excellent design that flew well, also, as shown below.


Throwing our Glider



Our repaired and adapted glider



Me and Sean with our finished Glider



Our repaired and adapted glider