Engineering Word Problem
I received this via email and had to post it:
Engineering Word Problem
A Backhoe weighing 8 tons is on top of a flat-bed trailer and heading east on Interstate 70 near Hays, Kansas. The extended shovel arm is made of hardened refined steel and the approaching overpass is made of commercial-grade concrete, reinforced with 1 1/2 inch steel rebar spaced at 6 inch intervals in a crisscross pattern layered at 1 foot vertical spacing.
Solve: When the shovel arm hits the overpass, how fast do you have to be going to slice the bridge in half? (Assume no effect for headwind and no braking by the driver...)
Extra Credit: Solve for the time and distance required for the entire rig to come to a complete stop after hitting the overpass at the speed calculated above.
Dliveo
Dliveo is a free web-based file delivery tool. Think of it as FedEx for files. Check it out, it's pretty cool, although it does have some limitations, e.g., you have to register a different account for each computer on which you want to use it, rather than being able to tie them all to an individual email address.
Energy Ex Nihilo?
An Irish company, Steorn, is claiming that it has stumbled upon a method of creating energy from nothing. According to this article, the company was working on another project several years ago when it discovered a method of creating energy using magnetic fields. It claims that it has thoroughly tested the technology in house and has had outside laboratories test it as well. It is now challenging 12 physicists to test the technology in order to make it commercially credible. Many are skeptical of the claim because, according to the laws of physics, energy can neither be created nor destroyed - it can only change form.
The Definitions of a Planet
The International Astronomical Union has proposed a new definition of the word "Planet". Under the new definition, which is basically "round and orbity", as this article puts it, there would be as many as 53 bodies in our solar system that would be classified as planets.
The Republic of Cascadia
What do you get when you take Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, succeed from their respective unions, and form a new country? Yep, you guessed it, the Republic of Cascadia. I highly recommend looking over the website as well as the Wikipedia article.
Browsers
In the past, visitors to this blog were about evenly split between Firefox and IE. Firefox was edging out IE by a few percentage points. There were also a few users arriving using Safari and other browsers. Lately, though, the Safari crowd has increased and the Firefox crowd has decreased. A knee-jerk guess is the Firefox users are switching to Safari.
Comments?
Fisherman Adrift for 11 Months
They were found 5,000 miles from where they started and reportedly survived on rain water, fish, and sea birds.
Missing Moon Landing Videos
Apparently, there is a chance that the original recordings of the First Moon Landing have been lost. These recordings were of a much high quality than what the public saw on TV that night, as explained in this article. This may make you think of the situation with the Saturn V plans which were "lost". It turns out that that particular story is untrue.
Mini Cows as Pets
My sister would love this just a little too much. People have begun keeping miniature breeds of cows as pets. This article is specifically about the Australian Lowline variety. Apparently, there are many more miniature breeds. Go figure.
Sturgeon are dangerous creatures as well
A 4-foot long sturgeon jumped out of the water and knocked a passing Jetskier of his craft and left him unconscious.
The Palm Islands
The Palm Islands are a group of three artificial islands being constructed in Dubai. They will be the largest artificial islands in the world and are being constructed as part of an effort to diversify Dubai's economy (in this case, by promoting tourism) before it's oil reserves run out (an event estimated to be due sometime in the second decade of this century). Each island is shaped like a Palm tree (each one is slightly different). Each island will hold multiple 5-star hotels, thousands of resort homes, theme parks, marinas, apartment buildings, and monorails.
Check out this article for more information.
Kobayashi at it again!
Kobayashi is at it again, this time in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, at the Johnsonville World Brat Eating Championship. The previous record of 34.5 brats held by reigning champion, Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas, was smashed by Kobayashi who ate 58 brats in ten minutes. Joey Chestnut came in second with 45.
Source article
World's Longest Yard Sale
The World's Longest Yard Sale happens again this weekend. It's found on US-127 and is 450 miles long, by the way and stretches across three states.
Source article
Coke and Pepsi Now Illegal in India
A state in India has ordered that Coke and Pepsi not be served until their ingredients lists are made known. This is due to concerns that 11 products of both companies contain harful ingredients.
Source article
New Visitors
Welcome to the first visitors from Peru, Finland, Japan, Singapore, the Phillipines, and Australia!
Bank Robbery
Q: What do you do when you see a bank robbery in progress?
A: Steal the getaway car. Duh.
Another Lobster Story
Remember that hairy lobster I blogged a while back? And that fact about blue lobsters? Well, now there are yellow lobsters popping up. Apparently, there are also blue lobsters. The odds of finding a yellow lobster: 1 in 30,000,000. The odds of finding a blue lobster: 1 in 1,000,000.
Source article
Password Myths
Here are ten myths about passwords. Some of them are rather techie, some of them are very simple. Interesting reading.
Tree Carvings
Apparently, carvings in tree bark made by Basque shepherds in Idaho in the 19th century are valuable to historians. Who knew?
Source article
Castro
Fabian Escalante, who was for a time responsible for keeping Fidel Castro alive, has calculated that there have been 683 attempts on the Communist dictator's life.
Source article
Earth's Gravity
Scientisits have determined that the 9.1-magnitude December 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake changed the Earth's gravity by altering the geometry of the region for thousands of square miles.
Source article
Marlins are surprisingly dangerous animals
While participating in a fishing tournament near Bermuda, a man was speared through the chest by the three foot long, razor sharp bill of a 14-foot marlin. He lived, amazingly.
Source article
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)