Jake Broughton's Bridge project A block

The bridge project was part of the 1st semester final in which we had to build an certain bridge design using materials such as balsa wood and glue. It had to withstand an amount of load that was distributed towards the center of the structure. The bridge would hold as much as possible until it collapsed into the bucket below.

My design took a lot of balsa wood. Every stick that was given to me was used in the whole design. The framework of my bridge design took a lot of tedious patients and caution. In my bridge i had several of the "king posts" truss designs installed into the center refuge of the structure. Different from most other designs made by the class, my bridge held a significant amount of weight however not the most.

My bridge design was a huge success. Although it did not hold the most weight, it demonstrated the errors and the ways i could of done a better job. My bridge could of done better because of where i specifically placed my balsa wood. I could of placed a lot more on the base where the bucket with the load was placed. There, the bridge could of done a more significant job of holding much more load.

I have learned much from this building experience. It gave me a perspective of what the civil engineers do in the real world, their steps to solve the problem and then completion. The engineer always deciphers the weaknesses, pros and cons, etc. before performing their tasks. It also took a large amount of time and patience to build. Since you had to be precise in where your parts were placed.

This project should be a definite in being one of the projects proposed for next year's intro to engineering classes!

sarah long a block post #2

robots-we were given a box of a lego kit to build a robot and for the first round of robot building we went by the manual. the manual gave us step by step instructions on how to build this robot. there was an intelligence brick, which was basically the brain of the robot. this is where all the controls were on and all the programs we created were on it. then we took the robot apart, not being allowed to look at the manual, we had to create a robot with the pieces we were given from scratch. our design was more of a flat design with the brick not being at such an angle. we had our two wheels in the front, and a little wheel in the back. in order for our back wheel to work we had a contraption in the back from the brick down the the wheel. we had two motors, one on each side, that were connected to the big wheels. the little wheels was not attached to any motor but it adjusted its position to how the other wheels were operating. we had to create a program that would allow the robot to run a course without us interfering with it at all. it had to go straight, turn left, go straight, turn right, go straight into a cave and have a light turn on and then turn back around and make it back to the beginning. our design was not completely successful, it made it to the cave but never fully made it back to the beginning. we had a problem that our light would turn on in the cave but it would stay on and not finish the program we had designed. i learned that even if you get frustrated during a project you need to breathe and look for different approaches to the problem you are having. with this project there is so many easy solutions and different ways you can fix something. next time i would not make the course so difficult to program and give us more time.

sarah long a block post #1

observation deck- the observation deck was based on the deck hanging off of the Grand Canyon. the goal was to get the strongest and longest deck. Our decks however were made out of popsicle sticks and glue. There was a formula that balanced the distance with the strength. we used different weights and each had a certain part of the deck that the weights were placed. for our design we went for length, we had the longest deck in the class. we decided to place all of our weight on the end of our deck. if we placed the weight in a different place we probably could have gotten more weight due to the strongest part of our deck was by the table. we made our deck so that it basically bear-hugged the table. i learned from this project that you need to be creative with designs and cannot always just look at one design and copy it. you need to take different approaches and learn which one works the best. overall i think this was a good project, maybe get different type of weight next time since on some decks we had a hard time keeping the weights on.

The Potato Cannon Project Jake B. A Block

The potato cannon is a large projectile launcher that is capable sending small organic objects such as the "potato" hundreds of feet into the distance. The launching sequence requires hairspray installed into the back and a button mechanism to release the pressure and shoot the potato.

My design was a little bit different of those that were brought up online and created by the other class. The cannon had a larger gas portion which could provide much more propulsion as opposed to other cannons. It also had a handle in which the person firing it can get more stability in their shot. Everything else on the design looked slightly similar to other potato cannon options.

Although we did not get to build our classes potato cannon however the design would stand out. Observing the success of the other potato cannon gives me an idea that ours would of done alot better and been more consistent.

This project has given me alot of experience in problem solving strategies and how to assemble more complex building materials. In this building process, I also have learned to use the application called Sketch-up. Which serves as an very effective computer design program that can draw and perform almost anything. This skill will be great for future projects.

I most certainly agree to do this project next year. Building a large cannon then testing your work gives you an exhilarating experience. I believe this project will be enjoyable to people that take engineering next year.

1. Any feedback you may have for the project if I was to do it again next year.
2. Post pictures if possible (I've uploaded some pictures onto the shared drive).

Philip Lux

A block

Another project that i would like to talk about is the egg drop project. I really enjoyed this project because it was exciting to see what all of the work that we put into our little baskets really did. Mine didnt work but it was still cool to see them drop. For this project, we had to use only 1 paper cup, 20 straws, some cotton balls and a few popsicle sticks to make a basket that would eventually help our egg to not break when it was dropped form the balcony of pilalis. My design had the cotton balls on the bottom of the cup with cut up pieces of the straw on top of it for more cushion. There were also holes in the side of the cup where we put the popsicle sticks through to hold the egg in place. Our design didnt work at all and the egg broke when we dropped it. If i could make improvements, I would give the egg more room to move around instead of having it very stable. From this project, i learned that eggs break very easily on contact but some, if placed in the right materials will not break.

Philip Lux

A block

The project that i really liked this year was the robot that we had to design and program to go through a course. We were not aloud to use any directions and we had to make up our own design as a group and try to see if it ran. My design was pretty simple. It had one motor with one wheel on one side of the command block and the same thing on the other side which made the robot pretty balanced. I also made a small wheel on the back of the robot so that it would be able to drive straight, turn at a 90 degree angle and balance. My design for the robot was pretty successful. All of my programing was perfect but it was hard to get the robot to do the exact same thing every single time so it got pretty frustrating. My robot got through the course once or twice without touching any of the walls but it was hard to do. If i could improve my robot, i would try to get it more balanced and try to get the two big wheels to move exactly the same without wiggling. From this project, i learned that with hard work on something, you can eventually accomplish it. If you were to do this project next year, you should let them use the directions on their actual thing and have them make up the programing because it was hard to get the wheels right and get it perfectly stable to run.

Michael Vaughan

C-Block

Another project I would like give a brief synopsis on would be the potato gun project. We started off by filling out charts for what we needed, safety instructions, and materials needed, and design steps. Again, we practiced our designing skills to begin this project and be on our way. To be specific, we used the program named SketchUp, which is a computer aided design program. The tutorial process for this program was rather lengthy and tough but, once we got the hang of it, it was extremely useful. With the program, we were able to construct our cannon down the specific measurements of each piece. For instance, we used a basic four and a half foot barrel and a two foot long combustion chamber with a 4 inch diameter. Once the SketchUp phase was done, it was time to buy the materials to build this cannon as a class. We went to the local Home Depot and bought the materials needed to build it, including two large PCP pipes. Then, we cut down the pieces to size, assembled the potato gun, and added some finishing touches. We spray painted the potato gun in with a camouflage color with leaves. This was a group project and I think that with the help of everybody in the class, we were able to construct a successful spud gun. On testing day, the gun managed to spit the potato past the football turf, landing approximately 150 yards away. I really had fun designing and shooting this cannon and I next time someone mentions a potato gun, I will brag about the one my class and I built in Engineering class. My advice for next year would be to get the okay from Mrs. Berry to have everyone in the class to get a turn shooting what they had helped design.