Engineering

Well, coincidentally, while I am making my mousetrap catapult, my drafting class is assigning us a mousetrap CAR fun assignment, wanting us to design a car powered on a mousetrap that would go the furthest. So, what kind of things do I need to note for a long distance mousetrap car? It can be slow to a crawl, but really long distance traveller.

Right im determined to figure this one out ! i have been thinking about it and i no longer would use a bendy metal like i was discussing in the other topic. Now i need to use the same sort of design as they use on thoise bendy lamps. Im wondering if anyone knows how exactly you make one which can take quite and bif of weight around 10KG and what materials to use ! ? Thanks

I was wondering if anyone knows how to go about making a very short-range transmitter/receiver for electronic signals, particularly music. The size of the transmitter wouldn't have to be that big, but the receiver would be preferably small enough to hook to a ear bud. I was thinking of cutting a headphone cable, and attaching an antenna to the jack, with a pair of receivers on each bud. Would this work, and if it is possible, how? -Anjruu

I have a dc motor and it is 800 hp. The problem is that it is pin firing under the brushes when i put it under load. We have turned the the comm,bought new brush holder & springs, also bought new brushes in thinking that they could have been of poor quality. We have also installed shimms under the poles pieces. After checking them the shims were the wrong thickness and not in the right order meaning alum, steel. Also notieced that 2 of the insulators were cracked and replaced. The neurtral was also adjusted. any ideas? It seems to be arcing on the trailing edge of the brush 1) I am thinkin of returning the comm 2) Removing shimms poles may be too strong …

"Impervium? Eternium? What do you call a nearly unbreakable metal? Dr. Richard Waterstrat has been pondering that question ever since he invented an alloy that is nearly impervious to wear. Several years ago at the National Institute for Standards and Technology, Dr. Waterstrat was developing a metal for use in artificial hips and knees. Because the alloy would be implanted into the human body, it needed to be both nontoxic and crack-resistant. He made one alloy by mixing three metals- zirconium, palladium, and ruthenium. The alloy seemed promising, so Dr. Waterstrat sent it down to the machine shop to prepare a sample for testing. Soon after, Dr. Waterstr…

http://turboram.50webs.com prokect details help me in finding some defficiencies in m/c

hey i'm making a hexapod robot using nitinol for movement. i've got 50 um HT flexinol wire, and i put em on each joint on both sides of it, so it works kinda like how real muscles work, contracting in opposites. i kno its nto the most efficient but w/e, this way allows for better stability than a rigid system. i'm trying to get it to move super fast, thus the thin nitinol, but with great stability (cockroaches) i'm really new into this whole area, i just have to do it for a skool project, but i'm already stuck lol i cant get my nitinol to contract, even with just a simple circuit, i have 1 double A battery holder, attached to a 4.7ohm resistor n' when i touch the ends t…

Hey everyone. I need a bit of help with the design for my art project. We're working with sculptures of human figures and part of mine is going to be veins. To do the veins I could pretty easily get clear tubing and fill it with red and blue liquids. But to make it even better, I wanted to be able to turn the lights off and halve the only light be that which is running through the veins, almost like fiberoptics. Fiberoptics only release the light at the end though. I want something that you can see light the whole way (so they look like veins obviously). Are there any tricks here to get the light to travel through the veins further? How far do you think I could get it to …

I have recently become interesting in cryogenics and uses. Does anyone do anything in this field or know about it. I just wanted to hear what people would do/have done or know about it. Are there are good books on the sugject btw?

My friend and I are doing a physics project where we need to design and build a car that will travel the maximum distance powered by a party balloon, as in by the force applied by the air coming out from the hole. The maximum weight is one kilogram. The problem is, we cannot decide to minimize or maximize weight. I think there are good arguments for both sides. For the less weight, the force of the balloon has more effect when the balloon still has air inside of it, when it is still applying force, but after it runs out of air, it quickly slows down because of lack of momentum. With greater mass, it is the opposite. We were wondering which would be the best course to …

Hey all, this is about the only science forum I was able to find - after reading some of the posts I determined this is a good source for help and sarcasm if I do something stupid I have a tl1000r (motorcycle) that I want to convert the two exhaust mufflers to undertail sound absorption rather than trying to cancel it out. (There are no aftermarket exhaust systems for this conversion.) I will draw up the design when I get home, this is my first post and wanted to introduce myself. My idea was to perforate sheetmetal and use about 1/4" thick sheet of some decent inexpensive sound absorbing material (obviously with a high heat tolerance because the headers and exhaust …

Dear all, Before I say anything, I would like to say that my understanding in 3 phase electrical power is superficial and that I would be using layman terms to explain my predicament. I hope all of you still can understand me. I discovered that the power supply to my rented shop in Singapore is of 3 phase power. I also discovered that the electrical wiring is wired such that each of my power point becomes a single phase power point. As such, I would like to ask, if it would work if I manually attach wires, such that I could have single phase powerpoints and a three phase power point, working at the same time, running concurrently. (I've got some 3 phase equip…

We're making a "car" that's to run for a racing competition. The track consists of plenty of obstructions like 5mm steel rods for speedbreakers, sand pits, gravel beds, S-bends, 50 degree inclines etc etc... The thing is that it cannot be wireless, and must have wires. This makes it simple for us in sense that all we need to do is strap 4 motors and then connect the left side motors in a group and the right side motors in another group to a 2 way switch each. Here's where I need help: 1. We've thought of putting the motors in a T-joint of pipe and then connect both of them. Will this be good enough. 2. The motors we are using are 12V motors@300 R.P.M, but on…

Does anyone know what is good in simulation software? I'm looking for something that will model electrical, mechanical and hydraulic systems.

Does anybody know where to get pictures of the inside of the zion nuclear power plant? If not, then can anybody show me the inside of a power plant that's similar to zion nuclear power plant?

Here is a question that I decided to post in the engineering section, since engineering is an apotheosis of innovation. I was just curious as to see what kinds of brilliant innovations this would spawn. I'll enter my answer to the problem on January 31st, however, I doubt my answer will be as good as some. Suppose you were put into a room with no windows, and no visible doors. At the center of the room was a light fixture. Your watch, your cell phone, everything that told time, was removed. All you had was your clothes, a pen, a pencil with eraser, a paperclip, and several different coins. Your objective is to build a device which can tell you the time, or time p…

Oh dear! According to an article in "New Scientist" 21 Jan 2006. More reactive nitrogen falls out of the air now than farmers put on their fields in the 1950's. Reactive nitrogen is generated naturally by lightening The same article also claims that this is due to the addition of reactive nitrogen into the environment caused by the ways of man. Such as using fertiliser to feed our populations, the use of most fuelled land, air, and sea vehicles. It is also predicted that 70 percent of natural ecosystems to end by 2050. The most worrying aspect of most forms of reactive nitrogen is their contribution to Eutrophication. Eutrophication is defined (by http:/…

If anyone's been following up on my latest threads, one can come to a conclusion that I'm building something. I recently just formed a research group, currently very small, yet working on expansion. We are planning something big, a big project, and we'll be unveiling our end product sometime around May 2007. BUT THAT IS ONLY IF WE CAN GET FUNDED. We need grant money to operate on this. We need the money for a lab set-up including temendous computing capability as well as production of the product. We may incorporate the research group in order to quallify for NEA's research grants. So if anyone has connections to a firm that supports scientific endeavors, we will thank yo…

I will need to set up a minimalistic Robotics Lab, for about a year and a half or research/development of a complex automaton. Can anyone list the items I should invest in, or give me an estimate of the net cost? It will be much more a machine than a conventional robot, by that I mean that it will stay stationary and run processes, such as calculations, and dilations, and decantations, and seperation of earth materials. I'm guessing I'll need a powerful computer, does that mean I should invest in dual-core? Let's pretend money isn't an issue.

Hi all. I am considering making a rapid-firing coil gun for a school project. NO it will not be a gigantic man-slaughtering weapon of mass destruction - I doubt whether it will even break the sound barrier (more like dropping like a stone after travelling 2 feet). Honestly, I'm happy if I get the projectile out a meter before it hits the ground. So, can anyone suggest some ideas or plans or sites to help me? I've googled around, but they all are either camera flash cap powered or gigantic cap more than capable to kill a person powered. And they're all one shot, then wait for the cap to recharge style. Are there any rapid fire ones? I saw a few movies of a very low pow…

I'm doing a report in school and my topic is safety procedures/rules/precautions in a nuclear power plant (specifically the Zion Plant near Chicago, Illinois). Can anybody tell me where I could find this information?

Hello, Im interested in somewere i can find things like circuit switches dimmers etc.. small enought to fit into a 2cmx5cmx52m box so just reasonably small. I would also need a LED. Thanks a lot

I was just wondering if anyone knew how I could make a homemade heat exchanger. It's more of a contherm concept but I need to constantly keep a liquid moving while I'm heating it up. The main idea of my contherm is to keep the liquid constantly moving through a tube while being heated from a source that isn't in direct contact with the liquid. Any help would be great, Thanks!

I have some questions which may seem strange, but this is for part of a project I am working on. 1) How necessary is low pressure argon gas in the operation of a fluorescent light? Would a normal pressure argon work with less efficiency, or would it not work at all? 2) Can I power a fluorescent light from a Magnetron? Do you have any thoughts on what the best way would be to do this? Thanks for your input

Does anyone know if Ultraviolet C rays would damage some kind of paints, like for example the paint on a car? Perhaps this may not happen upon immmediate contact with the UVC but the deterioration would occurr over a few weeks thereafter.