Posts Tagged technology
A Santa Claus machine
Someone just sent me this amazing video of a 3D printer copying a crescent wrench – moving parts and all. The company featured, Z-Corp, is a Stat-Ease client. See this case study showing how their engineers used response surface methods (RSM) to discover a small window of operability.
Another client of Stat-Ease, Stratasys, also offers rapid-prototyping machines, but they make use of another technology called fused deposition modeling (FDM) – explained nicely by this schematic from Ferris State University. I’ve seen these machines at work. They run from plastic line similar to what’s used in a weed whacker. Based on a computerized blueprint, this material (suitable for functional parts, not just prototypes) is melted layer-by-layer into complex shapes. Check out this full-scale turboprop engine produced by FDM.
The next step will be the development of machines that can make whatever you need out of whatever you happen to have nearby that can be shoveled in the hopper. Then people who really want to get away from the crowds can rocket off to any old unoccupied planetismal and set themselves up with house and home.
“It’s possible to imagine a machine that could scoop up material – rocks from the Moon or rocks from asteroids – process them inside and produce just about any product: washing machines or teacups or automobiles or starships. Once such a machine exists it could gather sunlight and materials that it’s sitting on, and produce on call whatever product anybody wants to name, as long as somebody knows how to make it and those instructions can be given to the machine. I think the name Santa Claus Machine for such a device is appropriate.”
– Physicist Theodore Taylor (1978)
Test and evaluation of the Great Panjandrum – a spectacular failure for weaponry
Posted by mark in history, science, Uncategorized on March 23, 2010
When time becomes available – mainly while I do cardio-exercise on my home elliptical, I’ve been watching a classic 26-episode BBC series on The World at War that my oldest son gave me. It’s extremely compelling – rated 9.7 out of 10 by over two thousand voters at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb).
This morning I watched the chronicle of D-Day. Being that I just returned from the Annual National Test & Evaluation Conference by the National Defense Industry Association (NDIA), it was interesting to see what the boffins of Britain invented to defeat the defenses put up along the Normandy beaches. Perhaps the most amazing device was the Great Panjandrum, a rocket-propelled cart, which according to this write-up for Wikipedia was developed by the Admiralty’s Directorate of Miscellaneous Weapons Development. (One wonders about the “miscellaneous” bit.) The clip I viewed on the spectacular failure of the Great Panjandrum can be seen (along with other incredibly-inept military devices for D-Day) in a video on British Secret Wartime Follies posted in this article by UK’s Daily Mail. Check it out!
PS. The Brits continue to come up with the most audacious inventions, such as this flame-throwing moped developed as a deterrent against derelict drivers competing for motorway lanes.
Math messed with future astronaut’s mind and made him think faster
Last Thursday I enjoyed an inspirational speech by USAF Lieutenant Colonel Duane “Digger” Carey – a Saint Paul guy like me, but one who went far further than possibly any other from our home city. Digger was invited by the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Technology to speak about his experiences as pilot of the Columbia Space Shuttle mission of March 1-12, 2002,* that successfully upgraded the Hubble Space Telescope.**
Although Digger has many stories to tell, not the least of which is his record as a combat fighter pilot, he is most passionate about the benefits of math and science. He feels that his Masters in Aeronautical Engineering, while not directly relevant to flying a jet, enabled him to solve mission-critical problems at afterburner speed.
It was great seeing a hero like Digger Carey talk up math and science to our young people. I recall taking a summer physics camp and working out the equations for rocketry while building a model of the Saturn V. At the end of the course we blasted it off with 5 solid-propellant engines. Unfortunately it went way up and out of sight, so we never recovered the parachuted parts that floated somewhere back to Earth. However, even if we’d found the rocket, there would be no way to recapture the joy of seeing math and science put into action on that first launch. Anyways, that was enough for me. Imagine actually being inside a rocket blasting off! That takes a lot of courage and faith in technology.
“The most important thing we can do is inspire young minds and to advance science, math and technology education.”
— John Glenn, one of NASA’s original astronauts
* The last mission before the disaster of 2003
**See these spectacular new images from Hubble produced by the space telescope after the latest (and likely last) upgrade made by Shuttle Discovery astronauts who just landed Friday.
Black belt master of multitasking?
Don’t Read This in Traffic says this article by Steve Lohr of New York Times, which many busy residents of that hyperactive city probably viewed on their internet-enabled cell phones while waiting in traffic. The multitask that I assigned this week to executive Six Sigma students at Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business seemed easy in comparison: While sitting, rotate your right foot clockwise in sigmoidal fashion and then trace the number 6 in the air with your right hand. This stumped the entire class, so none could be declared black belts of Six Sigma, at least so far as being adept at tracing the symbols simultaneously. Do you think you can do it? Go ahead and try!
Seriously though, Lohr’s article did provide some good observations on multitasking:
— Check e-mail once per hour at most
— Listen to soothing background music – preferably not with lyrics
— Figure on 15 minutes being lost for every interruption to a serious mental task, such as composing computer code.
This last point explains why I seem to get so much writing done while home alone, working early in the morning before my staff arrives and filling in dead time at airports and during flights – I need uninterrupted time to compose my thoughts. On the other hand, tasks that do not require much thought, like filing and following up on things, can be knocked off right and left – interruptions and all. Now if only I’d get this Six Sigma thing figured out and get my hand multitasking with my foot.
PS. That reminds me of an amazing multitasking feat (feet?): Seeing my oldest daughter Emily — already an accomplished pianist, learn to play the church organ. This musical instrument requires playing with both hands and both feet! It boggles my mind just thinking of trying to keep track of all these things simultaneously.
In search of the non-obvious
On Tuesday the United States Supreme Court will hear arguments on what should be considered obvious when older inventions are combined for a patent application. Lining up on the side of loosening standards are Microsoft, Intel and other companies that have sprung up more recently. Opposing them are companies like General Electric that hold strong patent positions. See detail on this case — KSR versus Telefex — at CNET news. All of you scientists and engineers working in the USA had better keep an eye out on this war in court. It may cause quite a shakeup in the aims of R&D.
Meanwhile, at a more personal level, many of us will be looking for that perfect gift for the person who already owns everything. Obviously it must be something that is not obvious. For example, how about Smittens — specialty mittens that allow you to hold hands while walking or sitting? I saw this featured in one of humorist Dave Barry’s gift guides. His 2006 recommendations came out today in the Miami Herald column “What’s behind Santa’s Ho-Ho-Ho”. If I had season tickets to a team that supported tailgaters, I’d ask Santa for a Cruzin Cooler. How about two coolers for your favorite couple, one for him and the other for her, along with a set of Smittens for them to cruise hand-in-hand around the parking lot?