engineering

There are 4 posts tagged engineering (this is page 1 of 1).

Mad Science with Robots

Have you ever seen fights of engineering with remote controlled robots? There are TV shows like Robot Wars and Battle Bots. Robot Wars talks more about the engineering and construction of the robots.

Understanding how the height, or complete flatness being low to the ground works. Figuring out whether a swinging blade of some kind works to fend off other bots. Or, something to help reset it when it gets tipped over in the fight. How to keep it mobile when other bots slash at its tires.

There is a lot of science in building a robot, especially one designed to fight other robots.

People who build and battle robots in Ontario.

Bot Brawl – Ontario robot fighting league. Planning to have events in 2021.(Old site, Bot Brawl and a Facebook link).

Robot Riots – Toronto based robot fight club, but the site seems abandoned since 2005.

I found this image on a free wallpaper site but I don’t know who the original artist is. Of course, this is not practical for actual robot fighting. This looks fabulous as an image but would not work well against remote controlled robots so carefully and cleverly engineered for combat. Cosmetic, not so well with function.

Rube Goldberg Machines

Did you ever play the Mousetrap game? It’s based on the idea of making a convoluted contraption to catch a mouse. The part of the game I most remember is watching all the parts of the machine work one after the other (like all those rows of dominoes people construct) to end up catching the mouse. In the game all the parts were plastic and fit together well, there wasn’t so much engineering and rebuilding involved. But, building a Rube Goldberg machine is a lot of engineering, planning and rebuilding because things don’t all work out just right the first time around. No matter how well planned.

mousetrap game

There is a Rube Goldberg Machine category at the Curlie web directory. I found it today after my sister told me she and her children are building a Rube Goldberg Machine. I didn’t know what it is. If I had ever heard of the name I had forgotten it. So I looked it up and found sites and a lot of videos. I posted most of them to the Curlie category so people can find them there.

The best links I found were the site about contests for people who build the machines, Rube Goldberg. Also, a kinetic artist who builds them as art and fun, Joseph Herscher and his site, Joseph’s Machines. He has video posts of his machines on YouTube.

Ethan shows how to make the machines, ideas for steps and parts along the way. He also shows how the best plans don’t always work out. Which not everyone does and I think it is really important to know. Anyone building these contraptions will need a lot of patience and rebuilding. Ethan’s video was my favourite.

Sprice Machines also makes them, house wide and going outside even. Extreme patience, creativity and engineering. Fun to watch.

Build a Better Mousetrap for the End of the World

Would you even guess this is a mousetrap? It’s vintage, from the 1930’s approximately. I first saw it on a video from Shawn Woods and then I went looking on eBay out of curiousity. Shawn Woods makes videos of how mousetraps actually work at catching mice. If you are especially squeamish or strongly against killing rodents, don’t watch. 
I think people have been trying to catch rodents, mice in particular, from the earliest days of deliberately planting anything with the idea of farming. You might think we should let all the urban wildlife live and, I’m not out to kill them all, but I do think we need to find some balance. Some animals are very good at surviving, adapting and scavenging. I’d rather see other animals keep their foothold instead of the planet being overrun by predatory scavengers. (I do include ourselves among those). 
I enjoyed watching the mousetrap videos for the engineering aspects really. My Father was an electrical engineer and I also like seeing the mechanics of things and how all the little parts work together and rely on each other. Vintage things especially because they were still made to last then. I like the heavy, solid feel of them and 100 years later they made need a little cleaning up but will still work. Often any repairs are simple enough you can manage yourself. 
I like to imagine the mousetraps people would come up with if there were an end of the world, a zombie apocalypse, a worldwide disaster, or some other possibility like the end of all fossil fuels. Could you make a mousetrap if you had to design and build it yourself? Don’t go with the “let all creatures live” thing. If it came down to the mouse or yourself for the last of the food you have on hand, I don’t think you would feel quite so charitable about sharing with a pack of rodents.

Real Book Lovers Make their own Bookmarks

bookmarkI became more interested in bookmarks after my friend, Deanna, asked to use one of my drawings for a bookmark she wanted to print out for the First Annual Bookmark Collectors Virtual Convention. Before that I never put a lot of thought into bookmarks. I had a few, I lost a few and a few were mangled when they fell out of my book and into the depths of my purse. Most of the time I stuck something in my page, whatever was around: a restaurant napkin, a store receipt, or a candy wrapper.

Sometimes I turned down the corner of the page I was reading, at the top. But, I didn’t really feel good about marking my page that way. Mainly because it seemed to be contributing to the future dog-earred look the book would eventually get it others continued bending it’s pages that way when they read it after me.

I did find a really nice bookmark which someone had made, not the conventional long, slender cardboard bookmark. Instead this bookmark was stiff paper, folded over to cover the top corner of the book’s pages. It was like a page cap, decorated too. But, I thought this would make a fairly heavy bookmark. For me, it was too likely to wind up falling off and being misplaced somewhere. Plus, it wouldn’t do much to save my place in the book.

When I read Les Miserables (a lengthy, heavy book) I picked up an elastic which had been used on a small box of chocolates I was given for my birthday. (From my hair stylist, Megan). It wasn’t just a plain rubber band. Shiny and golden and just the right length to stretch over the pages of the book to rest in the spine between the folds of pages. The gold elastic worked very well but I retired it when I finished the book.

I’ve seen clever bookmarks made from envelope corners, repurposing them rather than putting them into the recycling bin right away. I think this idea needs some engineering work though. I can’t see the corner of an envelope staying on the pages of my book for long. This may be great for people who don’t get into bookpacking (those who keep their book in one place rather than those take it on the road, the bus, the coffee shop, etc.)

I like using whatever bookmark the book store is giving away when I buy new books. I’ve had some nice ones, depending on which books were lately being promoted. I had one for Dragonology. I was sorry to see that one get a bit wrecked from a rainy day. It was inside my purse, in the book, but the rain leaked in and got everything wet. I have one from a website SmileyWorld. But I bought that one.

It doesn’t seem right to buy a bookmark when there are so many available for free, so may ways to repurpose something else as a bookmark and so many ways (simple ways) you can make your own bookmark.

‘Why pay a dollar for a bookmark? Why not use the dollar for a bookmark?’ – Steven Spielberg

jewelbookmark

Bookmark Making Ideas