Posts tagged ‘mechanics’
Daniel Bernoulli is in your toilet
February 1st, 2011 at 11:55 pm by Dr. Drang
With the Chicagoland Snowpocalype ’11 in full swing, and the wind howling outside my window, my thoughts have turned to the effect of Bernoulli’s principle on my toilet. Wind is so strong the water in the toilet bowls is rising and falling from the pressure changes in the vent pipe. #yesimanengineer8:41 PM Tue Feb 1,…
My curtain calls
January 28th, 2011 at 7:58 am by Dr. Drang
To me, the greatest piece of technology to hit hotel rooms in the past decade isn’t WiFi,1 it’s the curved shower curtain rod. This week I came across—for the first time—a minor failure of this wonderful innovation. You know what I’m talking about, right? The standard hotel tub/shower combo is kind of narrow, and in…
Coke cans, pull-tabs, and the class struggle
January 8th, 2011 at 3:45 pm by Dr. Drang
Yesterday, my wife sent me a link to this video. Bill Hammack, the self-styled Engineer Guy, has several cute videos like this posted on his web site, his YouTube channel, and his Facebook page. I think I saw one of them—the one where he takes a copier apart—on Boing Boing many months ago. Hammack’s an…
The Metrodome collapse and internal pressure
December 12th, 2010 at 10:39 pm by Dr. Drang
You’ve probably already seen this video, but here it is again. That’s the Metrodome in Minneapolis, home of the Minnesota Vikings and former home of the Minnesota Twins and the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers football team. The roof is—or was, before the collapse—an air-supported structure. It’s made of fabric with a set of criss-crossed…
Hoover Dam, arch bridges, and meatballs
October 29th, 2010 at 9:17 pm by Dr. Drang
Since today’s blog theme seems to be concrete, I thought I’d mention that the Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman Bridge—also known as the Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge—officially opened just over a week ago. It’s a wonderful concrete arch bridge that spans the Colorado River canyon just downstream of the dam. Our family’s spring vacation this year ended…
The iPhone 4 Glassgate story
October 7th, 2010 at 11:04 pm by Dr. Drang
Have you seen this story from Ryan Block at Gdgt? Here’s the key paragraph: According to my sources both inside and outside Apple, after Antennagate the iPhone engineering team identified another potential design flaw that appears to have sent them into a quiet lockdown, and has them working behind the scenes in what’s been described…
Board breaking, part two
September 10th, 2010 at 8:17 am by Dr. Drang
In the first post about breaking boards with karate-like blows, we analyzed when the board breaks (during the initial downward strike, not during the rebound or any subsequent oscillations) and the factors that affect the force delivered during the strike (the momentum of the fist and arm, the duration of the impact, and the shape…
Board breaking, part one
September 8th, 2010 at 7:40 am by Dr. Drang
Naperville has an end-of-summer fair called the Last Fling that runs over Labor Day weekend. This year, some local martial arts schools had a demonstration set up, and my ten-year-old son got to break a board with his fist. Which reminded me that I was going to write a followup to this Boing Boing post…
Bathroom scales and Robert Hooke
July 6th, 2010 at 8:00 am by Dr. Drang
A few weeks ago I had an argument with our bathroom scale, and it got me thinking about strain gauges and Robert Hooke. The argument with the scale came about because it wouldn’t give me a straight answer. I’ve been weighing myself every day since the beginning of the year and recording it in a…
Latch repair
June 27th, 2010 at 1:57 pm by Dr. Drang
A few weeks ago, a latch on our computer desk stopped working. It’s the spring-loaded latch on the keyboard drawer that keeps the drawer front in a vertical position, hiding the keyboard, when the drawer is pushed in. The spring in the latch broke, so the hook on the left side of the latch would…
