[Rant]
We have these things called cross walks at UNL. Now normally cars occupy the streets, but when pedestrians need to cross and there is too much traffic, what do they do? Press the walk button right?
Well UNL students (9/10 at least) don't. They will bunch up in groups on the edges of the road waiting for the walk symbol to magically appear on its own. Then after two lights or so, they get frustrated and just cross in front of traffic.
Usually I press the walk button, but lately I've waited to see when someone else will and it usually takes a while. Seriously. HOW HARD IS PRESSING A BUTTON?
[/Rant]
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Saturday, March 07, 2009
on cardboard boats and late night math
Today I designed a cardboard...well....box i suppose. It was to be used for crossing the Larson Lifestyle center pool. Turns out they didn't have enough cardboard, tape, or time to complete my design. After doing some quick math i think that's probably ok because i over-engineered it.
After completion the boat would have displaced about two gallons of water by itself, and with the girls in it, it would have displaced about 34 gallons. The carrying capacity of the boat before reaching a safety margin of 2 inches above waterline (not counting buoyancy from pontoons) was 1,440 lbs. The boat itself was strong enough that the weight wouldn't have been the issue. I used triangular tubes that were stacked on each other to provide a skeleton for the floor and corners. This would have effectively distributed any vertical load laterally We hypothetically could have put more weight in as long as the pontoons in the bottom layer of the boat remained sealed. (I'm guessing it would sink around 1600 lbs)
The best thing about this boat, had it been built, is it would glide nicely across the water. With only the two girls inside it would have rested very high in the water, allowing for a quicker crossing (less drag) of the pool. It also would have been quite water resistant.
That is all my tired brain can process. Goodnight all.
After completion the boat would have displaced about two gallons of water by itself, and with the girls in it, it would have displaced about 34 gallons. The carrying capacity of the boat before reaching a safety margin of 2 inches above waterline (not counting buoyancy from pontoons) was 1,440 lbs. The boat itself was strong enough that the weight wouldn't have been the issue. I used triangular tubes that were stacked on each other to provide a skeleton for the floor and corners. This would have effectively distributed any vertical load laterally We hypothetically could have put more weight in as long as the pontoons in the bottom layer of the boat remained sealed. (I'm guessing it would sink around 1600 lbs)
The best thing about this boat, had it been built, is it would glide nicely across the water. With only the two girls inside it would have rested very high in the water, allowing for a quicker crossing (less drag) of the pool. It also would have been quite water resistant.
That is all my tired brain can process. Goodnight all.
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