It's Easy...I Think

“A wise man learns by the mistakes of others, a fool by his own.” This quote, taken from an old Latin proverb, encompasses a simple, but insightful philosophy that has proven quite useful during my recent studies at UNT. The first two years of my academic career consisted of core and undergraduate curriculum, where a majority of my time was spent delving into textbooks in order to extract the basic skills that would one day be used in my career, whether it be within industry or academia.

My coursework has taken a drastic but exciting turn during the transition from underclass to upperclass coursework. I now have several lab courses each semester, where I am able to implement the basics learned during my first two years. There’s one important thing I have learned though: never underestimate the complexity of a lab topic. In other words, there are some things you just can’t learn unless you actually conduct an experiment.

This concept in its simplest form is best illustrated by a situation I came across yesterday where I attempted to fasten two pieces of board together with a wood screw. The final result was a halfway inserted screw that had been completely stripped. It turns out that my drill bit was slightly too small; something I could not have known, unless I had asked someone else their opinion first. Instead I spent an hour wondering why I hadn’t thought about this problem occurring.

This goes back to my opening quote. If I would have asked someone, or done some research first, I could have avoided wasting my time. This also extends to our lab experiments. This is why we do literature searches, the first step in any experiment, to see how others conducted their research, and see if they encountered any problems.

So when my teacher told us to calculate the efficiency of a solar panel, I didn’t just say,”That’s easy”. I knew that I would have to do some research first, then take the measurements myself before I could be so confident. So for all you future engineers out there, always heed this Latin Proverb.

Power: The Energy Flow Rate (Part II)

Upon further investigation I realize now that I made a rather large mistake in one of my previous blogs entitled, Power Output: The Energy Flow Rate, (03/08/2010), or so I think. First off, the title was not wrong, but inaccurate. I revised the title now to say simply ‘Power’ because the rate at which energy flows can refer to either a power input or output.

Secondly, my calculation of the amount of Watts that my body was operating at was, let’s say, skewed. I originally stated that for a 30-minute workout, I burned around 400 calories. I then converted these 400 calories to Joules and divided by the number of seconds in 30 minutes. This gave me 0.928 Watts. At first I thought this seemed low, but was at the time completely convinced that the calculations were done correctly.

It turns out that the calculations themselves were performed correctly, but instead it was in my conversions where there was a discrepancy. A unit for energy is the ‘thermodynamic’ calorie, but workout equipment measures food calories, or large calories, which equates to approximately 4.1868 kilojoules per food calorie. I assumed ‘thermodynamic’ calories in my original calculations.

So in actuality I burned 400 food calories x 4186.8 Joules of energy in my workout, which equals 1,674,720 Joules total, assuming the workout bike measures food calories. Dividing this by the number of seconds in 30 minutes, 1800, gives me 930 Watts. This is a huge difference from my original result, but I believe more accurate. Again, if anyone has any input into this subject feel free to email at: studentjournalist1@gmail.com, because at this point I’m not sure if workout equipment manufacturers know what the heck they are talking about.

MEE Seniors Surge On

It is the culmination of pretty much any undergraduate engineering degree. It defines whether or not a student has learned anything in their studies. It is…the SENIOR DESIGN PROJECT! This year’s seniors have got an interesting idea. They will be participating in the ’Live Green Expo’ in Plano, where they will introduce a bicycle-powered entertainment center. Included in the entertainment center will be an HD LCD 1080p television set and a Nintendo Wii console.

UNT’s exhibit will be made up of several stationary bicycles. Spectators will be encouraged to ride the bikes to contribute power to the entertainment center. Where does a mechanical engineering design project factor into all of this? The answer is that the seniors designed the bicycle racks (which are what keep the bike from moving) so that the back wheel of the tire will turn a generator shaft which will send energy into a battery. The energy that is stored in the batteries will power the television throughout the day. The underlying message here is that energy generation can come from other places other than just fossil fuel.

Apply this concept to a gym. In theory, if an engineer were to come up with a practical application for this type of technology, the members of a gym could provide the energy necessary to run all of the lights, TV’s, and computers that assist in the normal day-to-day operations of the business, just by doing their normal workout. Technology such as this will be hot in the near future, so it’s cool to see the seniors displaying their version of a cutting edge idea.

I’ve seen one example of their idea on the news. It was some all-female prison where the inmates had to ride a bike just to power the TV so they could watch it! No leg pumping = no Judge Joe Brown. If you would like to see the senior’s exhibit in action, attend the ‘Live Green Expo’ on April 17 from 9am-7pm.
Admission is FREE!

Dicovery Park at a Glance

When you look at the Discovery Park campus here in Denton, you think of all of the possible innovative research and cutting edge technological discoveries that could be taking place on the inside. The building is massive, and was formerly a factory for missile production, which is evident from its design. But aside from the engineering/scientific setting that the campus provides, it is a surprisingly ideal niche for an abundance of nature.

The area surrounding the campus is a wide open flat plain with cow pastures and a few apartments sprinkled throughout. This terrain makes for some rather high wind velocities, which leads me to believe that the campus will have a wind turbine in the near future. These high winds also tend to attract birds to the building; specifically a family of vultures; Black Vultures. It seems that everyday the vultures can be seen gliding on the strong wind gusts surrounding the building, scanning the ground below for dead mice or whatever else seems edible. Vultures aren’t picky eaters I hear.

The Black Vultures are common throughout Texas and the lower Americas, but seeing them take such a liking to the Disco Park building has been a lesson on the unpredictability of nature. Last year the mother vulture laid two eggs, which successfully hatched. The interesting part is that the vultures’ choice for the location of their nest is right next to the window at one of the entrances to the building.

The location of the nest has allowed for a front seat to observe the growth of the vultures from eggs, to chicks, and finally fledglings. The fledgling stage is when the birds begin to fly. The mother vulture laid two more successful eggs this spring, and again the nest is in the same place, right next to the entrance window.

So what began as a missile factory has slowly evolved into an institute of higher learning, and a small zoo. One can only speculate as to what new surprises the future holds for Discovery Park.