Our first complete Engineering project was due today. In classic Science Challenge fashion, our team stayed up late finishing the vehicle and just barely got it done in time. However, our team performed all the requirements (quite well, I might add) and I think we're gonna do just fine.
>> Each team was required to construct a balloon-powered car to carry as many pennies as possible over a distance of five feet. Very few materials were allowed (duct tape, soda cans, and cardboard, basically), and we had to calculate the cost of each material (the vehicle represents a mining truck). Our vehicle carried 120 pennies on our best run, while the class average was around 60. We were very confident we were one of the top teams until we found out about another team in a different class who had a graduate student. Turns out this guy from Rose-Hullman is working on his graduate degree and his credit didn't transfer- he got stuck in a freshman engineering class. His team vehicle had some sort of piston device (piston? from duct tape and cardboard?) and carried over 1,000 pennies. Talk about a "you've still got a lot to learn" moment. Still, we accomplished all our goals and our vehicle did exactly what we said it would do. Suprisingly, money wasn't part of the grade, only the calculations. Our car was very cost effective, whereas the others that carried more weren't. In addition to a working model, we had to write a 5 page technical report, 3 pages of Excel calculations and economic analysis, and a technical drawing. I can't wait to see what our second project will be.
I also finished my other exam (chemistry), and I have a suprisingly good feeling about it. So far, all of my exams have happened in pairs, two in one week. I can't seem to do well on both, though...only one of the pair. I wish that my exams weren't so close together because it really puts pressure on my week (like I don't have enough to do). But now the tough part of the week is over, and it's time to take it easy. Next week I get to schedule my classes for the winter/spring semester.
Time to get some real sleep tonight.
Real, honest-to-goodness "I don't have anything due" sleep.
Purdue vs. Michigan on Saturday...BOILER UP!
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This assignment sounds awesome. All my assignments are written. So what made your design carry more than the others?
ReplyDeletePlease don't be mistaken- all of our assignments are written also...this was a project to be completed in addition to all of that. What made it work better than others?
ReplyDeleteWhy, my natural talent as an engineer, of course.
Sharing credit would also be our team's painstaking attention to detail, dilligent efforts at hand crafting symmetric and smooth surfaces, and hours of design and minimizing friction, weight, and inefficiencies in the design. We strove to make a strong, cheap, lightweight vehicle that maximized the force of the balloon, simply. And we did just that. (If you're still really curious, I can send you a copy of our final paper...)
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!! ryan... you're so full of it it's funny...
ReplyDeleteLet's assume for a moment that I wasn't being so out-of-character arrogant that it's intention was pure humor, and play along (that I'm so full of it).
ReplyDeleteWhere in the world would that come from? Four team members...
*David quit engineering and didn't help with the project at all
*Abbas was late to every meeting and spent most of the time oogling "Miss Shreve" and his Tara Reid desktop
*Alex helped with the construction and calculations (he did do a lot of the work once we got started, don't get me wrong)
...but that would mean that the design was mostly MY idea. Besides, it's not like I didn't list any other reasons why the thing worked. Nope, I simply took all of the credit (NOTE THE SARCASM IN THAT STATEMENT, PLEASE).
again ryan.... you're so full of it. :-P
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