The last project of the first semester (the end of the beginning, so to say) was any topic of our choosing. It left us with a lot of freedom, and my group decided to tackle the issue of earthquakes, specifically, creating a new building that could withstand the force of an earthquake and would remain upright throughout. We went through many designs, from two interlocking domes, to a rolling building in a crater, to large pieces of foam. Eventually, we settled on a blend of all of them. We used magnets in a crater to levitate the building, thus eliminating it's contact with the ground altogether. Ultimately, this aproach failed, but it was the discounting of the theory that moved us forward, be it ever so slightly.
Concepts: Forces- anything that pushes or pulls an object
Magnetism- an electrical field that reacts with other electrical fields in different ways
Engineering Design Cycle- The cycle that engineers go through when trying to design a new idea. Usually, they identify the problem, then they research everything about that problem. Using this knowledge, the engineer(s) will brainstorm several possible solutions, pick the best one, and construct a prototype of that solution. After testing the prototype, the engineer must evaluate whether the design is good enough, and publishes the idea and shares it with other scientists/engineers. They then rinse and repeat.
This experiment was a prime example of the glass half empty/full, in that it was either a failure or a triumph, depending on how you look at it. The design failed because of calibration issues, and other things that we didn't take into consideration. For one thing, if the magnets were to get out of alignment in even the slightest way, the whole building would crash down. The way I handled it wasn't very elegant either. I mixed up damage control with flat out lying. Instead of just fudging some numbers to make things make a little more sense, I told the audience that it would work, even though it obviously wouldn't. I learned a valuable lesson though, one that I won't forget. What I did like though, was that it crossed off another solution, so that the next engineer trying to to the same feat won't try our solution and end up wasting their time. What I also liked was how our team still decided to go through with it, even though it was an absolute failure and we could have started from scratch, and come up with a not-so-original, but a sound, idea. All in all, I was very happy with this project, and learned the most from it.
Concepts: Forces- anything that pushes or pulls an object
Magnetism- an electrical field that reacts with other electrical fields in different ways
Engineering Design Cycle- The cycle that engineers go through when trying to design a new idea. Usually, they identify the problem, then they research everything about that problem. Using this knowledge, the engineer(s) will brainstorm several possible solutions, pick the best one, and construct a prototype of that solution. After testing the prototype, the engineer must evaluate whether the design is good enough, and publishes the idea and shares it with other scientists/engineers. They then rinse and repeat.
This experiment was a prime example of the glass half empty/full, in that it was either a failure or a triumph, depending on how you look at it. The design failed because of calibration issues, and other things that we didn't take into consideration. For one thing, if the magnets were to get out of alignment in even the slightest way, the whole building would crash down. The way I handled it wasn't very elegant either. I mixed up damage control with flat out lying. Instead of just fudging some numbers to make things make a little more sense, I told the audience that it would work, even though it obviously wouldn't. I learned a valuable lesson though, one that I won't forget. What I did like though, was that it crossed off another solution, so that the next engineer trying to to the same feat won't try our solution and end up wasting their time. What I also liked was how our team still decided to go through with it, even though it was an absolute failure and we could have started from scratch, and come up with a not-so-original, but a sound, idea. All in all, I was very happy with this project, and learned the most from it.