3. (a) What did you find interesting about class today?

The fact that a scramjet and ramjet has no moving parts in the propulsion system is simply amazing. It seems so weird that these planes aren’t even capable of leaving the ground on their own, yet they can reach speeds far in excess of mach 1. These engines are essentially turbocharged jet engines; they compress air by using their own speed to their advantage. It’s fascinating that the faster these planes fly, the greater the compression achieved by the scramjet, which allows the plane to travel ever faster until it’s flying at a speed which is so hot that it can damage the plane. These planes are capable of so much; they could greatly change the entire aerospace industry if the military adopts them, and the may one day be used for even passenger travel.

3. (b) How could class have been taught better today?

This post is on programming, because the robotics section was easier to understand and the create a robot activity was fun. Programming is far too complex to even begin to understand in an hour and a half. For loops and if clauses are so in depth that anyone without a programming background was probably lost. I understood most of what was taught, but most people do not know anything about programming. Pseudo code would have been really useful to look at because it explains how a program works in simple terms in English that most people without a background in programming can understand. A more general overview of programming would have helped in understanding it, such as the fundamentals of object oriented programming and what each language is most often used for.

3. (a) What did you find interesting about class today?

The discussion about Asimov’s three laws of robotics was very thought provoking. It was a great topic because it really made you think outside of the box. Even though these laws aren’t really applicable with our current robotic technology, it was a good topic because it was just so abstract. A situation in which a robot would have to break a law of robotics would definitely create an error unless it was specifically programmed to perform a different action in a situation such as one that would violate the first law: “A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.” If a criminal has hostages, then the robot would harm a person through inaction, or would harm a person by killing the criminal. An artificial intelligence would have to implemented in order to have the robot kill a criminal that is willing to kill people.

1. Find 5 informative websites related to the topic discussed.

1) http://www.ent.ohiou.edu/~statics/

This website goes through the basics of static mechanics. It describes the parallelogram law as well as Newton’s first, second, and third laws, as well as his law on gravitation. This website basically sums up everything that we learned about mechanics at the last session.

2) http://www.sv.vt.edu/classes/MSE2094_NoteBook/97ClassProj/num/widas/history.html

This website describes finite elemental analysis in simple terminology. It describes how finite elemental analysis works and how it can be used such as for fatigue analysis, or for structural and vibrational analysis. This website describes how the program that you demonstrated in class works and what it does to analyze structures.

3) http://www.sv.vt.edu/classes/MSE2094_NoteBook/97ClassProj/anal/kelly/fatigue.html

This website describes the three different types of stresses that cause fatigue: axial, torsional, and flexural. An S-N curve is used to visually represent the amount of cycles a material withstands and how many it took until it broke. Crack propagation is also described which relates to when you were talking about samples that had very tiny cracks that caused the whole material to shear due to the pressure it was under.

4) http://www.matcoinc.com/Failure_analysis.html

Failure analysis is discussed in depth and the different types such as corrosion failure, paint delamination, environmental stresses, and fire and explosion failure. This company uses finite elemental analysis to determine what caused the failure or how the failure occurred. This is a real world application of using failure analysis in order to prevent future structural failures.

5) http://www.engr.sjsu.edu/WofMatE/FailureAnaly.htm

This is another website giving an overview of failure analysis. A material engineer is often used to investigate a failure in order to improve further structures or to solve a production problem. Failure analysis is used frequently in airplane crashes in order to determine what caused the accident in order to improve safety for future airplane travelers. A failure in a natural gas pipeline is also discussed and how it is essential for failure analysis to occur as soon as possible after failure.

2. Summarize a Research Paper

Padture, N, Gell, M, & Jordan, E (2002). Thermal Barrier Coatings for Gas-Turbine Engine Applications. Sciences AAAS. 296, 280-284.

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/296/5566/280

Alternating layers of ceramics and metals can be used to coat turbines of jet engines in order to provide a layer of thermal insulation. This may be applicable to the space plane if the coating can be made to be very heat resistant. Although these coatings are only 100-500 micrometers, the can protect turbine blades from the extreme temperatures of an engine. These coatings can reduce the surface temperature of of the super alloy blade by 100-300 degrees Celsius. This is a temperature drop that allows for a higher speed engine. If this technology is researched, it may provide the heat protection required for a space plane

3. (b) How could class have been taught better today?

When you were explaining how control systems worked, you showed us a diagram with a lot of “g”’s. This diagram was extremely confusing and made no sense even after explanations. If a real world application of this diagram was given, then it probably would have made at least a little sense. I don’t much about engineering, and most of the other people in the class probably don’t know about engineering as well. You should give simple real world examples of each concept you teach. This way we can see who this is applied.

(d) How does knowing what you learned today affect your daily life?

What I learned in this lecture was that even designing the simplest objects in a CAD program can be very difficult. There is a lot of though that goes into designs of ordinary objects that no one pays attention to or even notices. There are always solutions to problems, however the solution usually causes another problem, and that is why designing and engineering can be so difficult. The more that I learn about design, the more that I notice how things are built and why they’re built the way they are.

3b (How could class have been taught better?)

Class today was very open ended which was great, but it was a little too open ended. If the teachers gave a more specific directions as to what the discussions should have focused on, class would have been a little better. There isn’t too much to say because we didn’t really talk about the class subject, but instead talked about learning patterns and tips. I’m looking forward to learning actual mechanical design and other subject matters. Hopefully the teaching will be a little more fast paced than it was today, because at this pace I feel as if little learning will get done. If the discussions become slow and off topic, the teachers should point us in the right direction and ask thought provoking questions that will cause everyone to think and have a viewpoint.