 For my project I would like to create a voice recording arrow. I have assembled the items necessary yet I feel like this may not be possible due to placing of buttons as well as the ability of the arrow to move through the air. I have decided to proceed with this project but it may not be successful. The materials I am using are neodymium, a crossbow bolt, and PVC pipe/aluminium pipe(undecided). While this seems like an easy project, I can assure you it is not.
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 Almost everyday we see bridges. Coming to school, going to work, the sights are almost redundant. Do we truly understand the masterpiece which a bridge is? Every single bridge takes years to decades to create, and people take no appreciation to this. Engineers spend endless days and long nights designing a bridge which will not fail, not only for their job, but to ensure that the bridge is safe to civilians. Every bridge we see has had time and effort placed into it which cannot be overlooked and be seen nothing less than a masterpiece.
One such bridge is the Moses Bridge, in the Netherlands. While this may sound like an odd name, it gets even odder. This bridge does not pass over water, but through it. This bridge is an example of a masterpiece. This bridge especially comes to mind as it is different, abstract almost from other bridges. It is a bridge made entirely from wood. The wood is supposedly harder and more durable than some of the best tropical woods known to man. The wood is coated with a nontoxic anti-fungal coating to make sure the bridge does not fail. Everything was thought through by an engineer who set his mind to the possibility of building a bridge through the water. This shows what determination can accomplish. I wouldn't know how to classify this bridge as it is... well odd. The design constraints would obviously be the water pushing against the sides of the bridge, and the constant stress on the bridge from the water. The way the engineer overcame this is to control the water levels with dams on either side of the bridge. This helped make sure the bridge did not implode. Everything about this bridge was well thought out and this bridge is one of a kind as it is a milestone of achievement in engineering over the years. In the video, "To Err is Human" the narrator talked of many designing feats that succeeded as well as failed. Some of these inventions helped revolutionize and move the engineering community forward to the future which we are experiencing today. A failed space ship for example, was used as basis to better the next space ship by not having fuel leak and have every possible failure mapped out. Another example is the Pyramids. The steepness of the pyramids had to be measured. One of the Pyramids was almost too steep and collapsed but was rebuilt. This helped the engineers of the time redesign so that the rest of the Pyramids were built less steep to prevent failure. This was a process which every engineer followed.
Each engineer mapped out failure to make sure that the engineering feat is safe and will not cause loss of life. Many bridges have failed over the years but "Galloping Gertie" was one of the more popular and extreme ones. "Galloping Gertie" also known as the Tacoma Narrows Bridge failed on November 7, 1940 due to previous conditions. In the area where the Tacoma Narrows Bridge was, there was a lot of wind. The wind caused the bridge to flail in the air because of how thin and unhinged the bridge was. It was known to be a bridge which was driven over for fun because of how it moved until it collapsed. While this bridge was a failure, there have been more successes than failures. The first iron bridge ever built over the River Severn in England is still standing today. Big Ben is another example of how a building can fail and yet be rebuilt even better. On August 5, 1976 Big Ben had its first and only structural failure. The air breaker speed regulator broke after over 100 years of fatigue. Fatigue is the tendency of a material to crack under large amounts of pressure. This is what happened to Big Ben and ever since it was fixed it has not had a failure. Fatigue is also the main factor in many plane failures. Sometimes due to short cuts used during maintenance, planes fall victim to fatigue and may fail. There are many other examples of failures throughout history but all failures helped in someway, bring advancement to the engineering world. These failures are now mapped by computers. Computers are not always trustable, this is why engineers always check to make sure that the computer did not miss any of the structural failures that could happen. Failure is no mistake. There are many things that cause structural failures including but not limited to: improper building of the invention, gas leaks, steepness, fatigue, and failed maintenance. These are some of the main causes of structural failure. Stress and material is also a factor which factors into how long a building or invention will last. The amount of stress the invention has to withstand factors into which material is used. If a building is built with weak material but has a lot of pressure put on it, it will obviously fail. While failure is a terrible thing, engineers learn from them. Every failure causes a new development, a new change, however small it may be to preserve another life for which one was lost for. Failure can now happen without the loss of life though. While previously not possible, engineers can now do a proof test on a structure or building or simply build a model. Both of these have downsides to them. If a proof test is done and fails, all the money which was put into making the structure goes down the drain. Secondly, a model does not map out all the failures possible and the full scale bridge may be susceptible to failure. Every angle of engineering has its challenges and making sure failures don’t happen is one thing that engineers loose lots of sleep over and is one of the most difficult parts of their profession. Engineers make difficult decisions. While they may not always be out watching the invention being made, they are constantly helping improve and better their invention. Every little change they make on their blueprint can cause an invention to fail or continue to work. This is the nature of their work. Failure is something all engineers fear. It is something which they spend month upon month researching and making sure that their invention does not fail. They pride themselves on having to have their invention perfect. Every failure is a step to success and this is what engineering is about. Engineering is a field of trial and error which improves every time it fails. |
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October 2015
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