Mars B First Oil: Integrated & Delivered:

Shell has begun production from Mars B development. This is the company’s seventh and largest floating deep-water platform. The platform is located in the Gulf of Mexico. The team spent about 5 months doing the final hookups for the opening of the first well. The whole is about 20 stories tall, and the drilling rig is another 25 stories tall. As you can imagine, this is a big area. In the middle of the video, they open the first well after years of planning and operating. There was a flow of oil coming from the well! They are now officially a “producing facility.” For them to work as a team for so long, and coming this far it was really amazing to see the looks on their faces. Everyone was so proud and I’m sure it felt like a weight off their shoulders. I really enjoyed the video and it was amazing to see from an engineer’s perspective and to watch their reactions when they've succeeded!

Chapter 8 Notes Pt. 2

8.8 ENERGY

·        The Six Types of Energy and the Units used

Ø  Work: (W) energy expended by exertion of a force.

Ø  Potential Engery: (PE) a form of work done by moving a weight.

Ø  Kinetic Energy: (KE) a form of energy possessed by an object in motion.

Ø  Thermal Energy: (Q) or heat, is energy associated with a change in temperature.

8.9 POWER

·        Power

Ø  Power is defined as energy per time.

Ø  Power = energy / time

Ø  W = J / s

Ø  SI unit of power is watt

Ø  Power is the rate at which energy is delivered over time.

8.11 ELECTRICAL CONCEPTS

·        Electric Concepts (electric charge, electric current, voltage, electric resistance, electric power)

Ø  Electric Charge: Physical property of matter that causes it to experience a force when placed in an electromagnetic field. There are two types of electric charges: positive and negative.

Ø  Electric Current: measured in aperes. A flow of electric charge.

Ø  Voltage: is quantified using units of volts, and is an electromotive force of potential difference expressed in volts. (amasci.com/miscon/voltage.html) Voltage is what pushes the charges around to create current.

Ø  Electric Resistance: Repulsion of a current within a circuit. Resistance is quantified using ohms. One ohm is defined as one volt per ampere.

Ø  Electric Power: The rate at which electric energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is watt. (One joule per second)

·        Discuss resistors

Ø  A device having a designed resistance to the passage of an electric current.

Ø  They act to reduce current flow and act to lower voltage levels within circuits.

·        Discuss capacitors

Ø  A device used to store an electric charge, consisting of one or more pairs of conductors separated by an insulator.

Ø  Like a battery.

Ø  Store electrical energy.

·        Discuss Inductors

Ø  A passive two-terminal electrical component which resists changes in electric current passing through it.

Ø  Stores energy in the form of a magnetic field. 

Chapter 8 Notes

8.1 FORCE

-This table below shows the five common derived units in the SI system.

(Picture was saved from Alexandra's blog)

-Force=mass*acceleration

-F=ma

- The acceleration of something depends on the force exerted on it and its mass.

- SI unit of force=newton

- A newton is defined as the force required to accelerate a mass of one kilogram at a rate of one meter per second squared.

- A pound can be used as a unit of mass or force.

8.2 WEIGHT

- The difference between weight and mass:

-Mass is a measure of how much matter an object has. Weight is a measure of how strongly gravity pulls on that matter. For example, astronauts have the same mass in space, but a different weight because of weaker gravity.

8.3 DENSITY

- Density is the mass of an object divided by the volume the object occupies.

- Density is shown as p

-p=m/V

- Specific gravity (SG) of an object is a dimensionless ratio of the density of the object to the density of water.

            -SG= Density of object/Density of water

- Specific gravity limits

 - Solids> .5, <23

 - Liquids ~1

- Glasses ~0.001-0.0001

 -*exceptions:

              -iodine, 4.93

              -mercury, 13.6

8.4 AMOUNT

-Difference in amount in grams and the amount in moles:

            -grams=mass

            -moles=units of something

-If we have 12 of something it’s a dozen. If we have 20 of something it’s a score. If we have 6.022 X 10^23 it’s a mole.

 -Avogadro’s Number:

            -Avogadro’s Number= 6.022 X 10^23 mol^-1

            -It is difficult to measure a substance in moles, but it is easy to measure its mass.

            -Avogadro’s number offers a conversion path between moles and mass.

8.5 TEMPERATURE

-Four temperature scales:

            -Celsius

            -Fahrenheit

            -Kelvin

            -Rankine

T [Fahrenheit] – 32 / 180= T [Celsius] – 0 / 100

T [Kelvin] = T [Celsius] + 273

T [Rankine] = T [Fahrenheit] + 460

-The Kelvin and Rankine scales are absolute, which means that at absolute zero, the temperature at which molecules have minimum possible motion, the temperature is zero.

8.6 PRESSURE

-Pressure is defined as force acting over an area, where the force is perpendicular to the area.

-A pascal is the unit of pressure.

-One newton of force acting on an area of one square meter.

Pressure = force / area

Pa = N / m^2

-Atmospheric pressure: pressure created by the weight of air above us.

            -Standard atmospheric pressure is an average air pressure at sea level

            -Defined as one atmosphere [atm]

            -~14.7 pound-force per square inch. [psi]

-Absolute pressure = Gauge pressure + Atmospheric pressure

-Hydrostatic pressure: pressure exerted on a submerged object by the fluid in which it is immersed.

-Total pressure: the combination of atmospheric and hydrostatic pressure.

-Gas pressure: pressure created by a gas inside a closed container.

8.7 GAS PRESSURE:

- Ideal Gas Law

            PV = nRT

            -Only Kelvin or Rankine can be used in the ideal gas equation

            -P: Pressure

            -V: Volume

            -n: Amount s of gas in closed container

            -R: Gas constant

            -T: Temperature (either in Kelvin or Rankine)

The Great Egg Drop Week 2

Alex and I have made incredible progress in just one week. We have revised our problem definition, built our contraption and tested it once (from a height more than just two inches)!

Our new problem definition is: Our clients chickens are laying eggs at heights less than or equal to 17 feet. She is having trouble collecting the eggs because they are breaking once they hit the ground.

We are here to help her with the problem and that is why we are building this contraption to catch her falling eggs.

You saw in my last post our design layout and all of our planning. This week we put everything together realizing a few things. First, it made more sense for us to have a square foundation because it gave our basket more support when the egg falls in. Then instead of using one basket design, we used both designs together for more cushion for the egg. Finally, we completely got rid of the top of our contraption (the funneled top). This helped us with our budget and cost of the contraption.

In the pictures below, our foundation is composed of four triangles made from straw and taped together. Our basket was created by using straws cut into thirds with a tape drape interior.

With our first test, we used the plum bob to make sure we got it exactly in the basket. Alex was our handy dandy egg dropper and if she wasn't so nervous she would have made it in, but she missed it by a hair and our egg hit the corner of the basket and cracked. However, next week we will definitely make it inside our basket unharmed!

Alex and I have come a long way since last week and we are definitely going to succeed! We have built this contraption by bouncing and feeding off of each others ideas. I couldn't be more proud of our team!

The Great Egg Drop Week 1

Our first project in this class is The Great Egg Drop. We have divided into teams of 2 or 3 and we represent different countries. For example, Alexandra and I are a team and we are representing Japan. Each team is responsible for creating an ‘egg catcher.’ This contraption should be able to catch falling eggs from a height greater or less than 17 feet.

The trick to this challenge, we are only allowed to use one roll of masking tape, and 100 straws. For the next three weeks Alex and I will be posting regularly about our contraption and the progress we are making. Here are a few pictures of sketches and problem solving done in our first lab class.

This first picture representing our problem definition, criteria, and physics behind the challenge.

This second picture represents our design from a top view.

Finally, this represents a side view from our design sketch. We have decided between two designs. We will either build a straw bottom for our center basket, or we will create a hammock with the tape.

There is much more where this came from and I can’t wait to share with you! Alex and I are a great team, and I am so excited to begin building! 

Chapter 7 Notes

1.    Dimensions vs Units:

·         A dimensions is a measurable extent. Height, length

·         A unit lets us to quantify a dimension.

·         Length is dimension, there are many units of length such as miles and feet.

2.    SI Prefixes:

·         Based on multiples of 10.

·         We avoid scientific notation or long strings of zeros.

·         Instead of: 198,000 We say: 198 Kilometers

3.    The 7 fundamental dimensions & base units:

·         Dimension: Length Symbol: L

·         Dimension: Mass Symbol: M

·         Dimension: Time Symbol: T

·         Dimension: Amount of Substance Symbol: N

·         Dimension: Light intensity Symbol: J

·         Dimension: Electric Current Symbol: I

·         Unit: Kilogram Symbol: kg

·         Unit: Meter Symbol: M

·         Unit: Second Symbol: s

·         Unit: Kelvin Symbol: K

·         Unit: Mole Symbol: mol

·         Unit: Candela Symbol: cd

·         Unit: Ampere Symbol: A

4.    Official SI rules:

·         If the unit abbreviation is a capital letter, it’s named after a person.

·         Symbols of units are not plural (cm, not cms.)

·         You do not put a period after the symbol unless at the end of a sentence.

·         Symbols are written like (m, k, L) not (m, k, l)

·         One space separates the number and symbol.

·         Spaces or commas may be used to group digits by threes.

·         Symbols with multiple units are joined with a space or interpunct.

·         Do not combine prefixes to form compound prefixes. Correct; picojoules (pJ) Incorrect; kiloMegaseconds (kMs)

5.    Difference in SI, AES and USCS. What are they? Which do you prefer? Why?:

·         SI: System International (meters, kilograms, seconds, kelvin, celcius)

·         AES: American Engineering System (feet, pounds, seconds, Fahrenheit, rankine)

·         USCS: United States Customary System (feet, slug, second, Fahrenheit, rankine)

·         I prefer to use AES and USCS only because I am used to the units and I have used them before.

6.    Unit Conversion Procedure:

·         This was a difficult topic to understand. However, the procedure is as follows.

·         Write the value and unit to be converted.

·         Write the conversion formula between the given unit and the desired unit.

·         Make a fraction, equal to 1, of the conversion formula in Step 2, such that the original unit in step 1 is located either in the denominator or in the numerator.

·         Multiply the term from step 1 by the fraction developed in step 3.

·         Cancel units, perform mathematical calculations, and express the answer in reasonable terms.

7.    Unit Conversion Procedure involving multiple steps:

Refer to table 7-4 to 7-8 in Thinking like an Engineer. Page 161

1.    Dimensions vs Units:

·         A dimensions is a measurable extent. Height, length

·         A unit lets us to quantify a dimension.

·         Length is dimension, there are many units of length such as miles and feet.

2.    SI Prefixes:

·         Based on multiples of 10.

·         We avoid scientific notation or long strings of zeros.

·         Instead of: 198,000 We say: 198 Kilometers

3.    The 7 fundamental dimensions & base units:

·         Dimension: Length Symbol: L

·         Dimension: Mass Symbol: M

·         Dimension: Time Symbol: T

·         Dimension: Amount of Substance Symbol: N

·         Dimension: Light intensity Symbol: J

·         Dimension: Electric Current Symbol: I

·         Unit: Kilogram Symbol: kg

·         Unit: Meter Symbol: M

·         Unit: Second Symbol: s

·         Unit: Kelvin Symbol: K

·         Unit: Mole Symbol: mol

·         Unit: Candela Symbol: cd

·         Unit: Ampere Symbol: A

4.    Official SI rules:

·         If the unit abbreviation is a capital letter, it’s named after a person.

·         Symbols of units are not plural (cm, not cms.)

·         You do not put a period after the symbol unless at the end of a sentence.

·         Symbols are written like (m, k, L) not (m, k, l)

·         One space separates the number and symbol.

·         Spaces or commas may be used to group digits by threes.

·         Symbols with multiple units are joined with a space or interpunct.

·         Do not combine prefixes to form compound prefixes. Correct; picojoules (pJ) Incorrect; kiloMegaseconds (kMs)

5.    Difference in SI, AES and USCS. What are they? Which do you prefer? Why?:

·         SI: System International (meters, kilograms, seconds, kelvin, celcius)

·         AES: American Engineering System (feet, pounds, seconds, Fahrenheit, rankine)

·         USCS: United States Customary System (feet, slug, second, Fahrenheit, rankine)

·         I prefer to use AES and USCS only because I am used to the units and I have used them before.

6.    Unit Conversion Procedure:

·         This was a difficult topic to understand. However, the procedure is as follows.

·         Write the value and unit to be converted.

·         Write the conversion formula between the given unit and the desired unit.

·         Make a fraction, equal to 1, of the conversion formula in Step 2, such that the original unit in step 1 is located either in the denominator or in the numerator.

·         Multiply the term from step 1 by the fraction developed in step 3.

·         Cancel units, perform mathematical calculations, and express the answer in reasonable terms.

7.    Unit Conversion Procedure involving multiple steps:

·         Refer to table 7-4 to 7-8 in Thinking like an Engineer. Page 161