Civil Engineering Host MAMP’s Students

On June 26, 1997, the Civil Engineering Department at the University of Memphis hosted a group of young scholars who will be entering the University in the Fall of 1997. The students were introduced to the vital roles that Civil Engineers fill in our society. As an introduction to the role of engineers as "problem solvers" and designers, the instructors (Charles Camp and Paul Palazolo) presented the following problem to the students:

Build the tallest freestanding structure to withstand the wind force of
a floor fan placed four feet away blowing towards the structure.

Structures were scored using following formula:

SCORE = height (inches) x time (seconds)

Failure of the structure was considered to occur when the top of the structures moved more than an inch in any direction.

The structure could have been constructed from any or all of materials supplied. These included: a piece of modeling clay, 10 straws, 6 pipe cleansers, a 36 inch piece of balsa wood, a piece of string, a piece of wire, a pencil, 5 index cards, 10 paper clips, 4 address labels, 3 20-penny nails, 2 sets of a bolt, nut and washer, and a gallon size zip lock bag.

And So The Process Began……

 

What are these parts and why are they here? How much wind does a fan actually put out?

Is Wide the Answer??? ….Or Maybe just Tall and Skinny?

Chaos Theory in Practice.

In a second trial later that day, the evolution of the designs continued until……