Reply With QuoteDid you read the Engineers Edge forum rules?
What are approved resources for getting homework help at your school?
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I put the text and drawing in the screenshot. I desperately need some help, preferably a picture or something of the fully solved problem, because literally nobody in my class has any idea how to solve this, and our professor doesn't seem to care about helping us since we've asked numerous times and all he tells us is "It's not correct, try again.". And that's it.
The problem's due on Wednesday and everybody just gave up on solving it.
I'm posting this on 2 subsections of this board because I don't know which is the appropriate one for my plea.
I would be very grateful to anybody willing to help. Thank you very much!
Did you read the Engineers Edge forum rules?
What are approved resources for getting homework help at your school?
Sorry, I did not read the forum rules, will do so now.
The professor told us we can use Albaqus and Mathlab, Mathcad or any other math software as far as virtual resources. And as far as other resources such as books ( be it virtual or physical), anything.
I won't give you the answer, and I don't have Mathcad or other fancy tools, but I can give you this hint: In the real world that you will be expected to function in, if all the legs are in the same vertical plane, they will not share the load equally. In fact, most likely one leg will see no load at all. Which one? I don't know. The reason is that it is impossible to manufacture components with absolute zero-zero precision. So, follow the logic...
And please give your professor a message from all the old farts on this forum. Tell him we said THANK YOU for forcing his students to think on their own and to think outside the boxes of their own creation!
The same professor gave us another project last semester, for the Serography course, and while we had to do everything on our own, he still hinted us on the right direction and helped us look for the ecuations needed, and so we managed to do it.
I did figure out that, more or less, not all beams are actually required. However I don't know how to prove it, and I don't know where to start doing that.
And while forcing students to think on their own might be a good idea, remember that we're still students that need some help. We're not fully graduated engineers that are expected to fully function in the real world yet, nor will we be for some time now.
I won't insist on asking you the full answer if you do not wish to give it, but maybe give me some reference/link to study or use to calculate what I need to calculate here.
That is what he is trying to teach you. THINK FIRST. Then calculate... but only if you need to.
You are trying to figure out what to calculate. Maybe you should be asking WHY to calculate.
You have to have some understanding of the problem before you know what, if any, mathematical tools might apply.
HINT 2, and the final one: From the problem: "the main objective function is weight". Not safety, or long life, or ease of building, or any of a myriad of other possible requirements.
I will give you another clue in addition to Joe's (JBoggs) after you describe where your thinking is at. As Joe has said, "think first," you appear to be trying to grab formulas that might apply but that will get you nowhere until you understand the system. It is quite a simple system to resolve, once the basics are understood.
I too would laud the Professor for making you work the gray-matter rather than just scouring books for a matching system-solutionIn the real World of Engineering, that's what you are going to have to be able to do. Better start now or enroll in Origami-101 for next semester and forget about Engineering as a career.
This is a great problem! All professors should be like your professor! THAT’S how you learn.
Anyway, I’d give you a hint but then everyone gave you too much already. I’d be giving this away if I were to add any more
Sadly, having not heard back from him/her, I suspect they are on another forum either debating the issue, or blindly following along. Totally missing the thrust of the question. It seems the Internet, while being an excellent data-resource, has also dropped the "thinking first" approach to one of "let's see who I can find to do this for me."
I know I keep lamenting this, but again, I think the future of Engineering and a lot of other other technical pursuits is doomed with this way of resolving issues. Fortunately the thinking approach to some issues still seems to be thriving with the entrepreneurs of the World. Anyone see the thought-controlled quadra-copter going though a maze of balloon-hoops? Very heartening to see invention still thrives at least is some tiny corners of the World.
Last edited by PinkertonD; 06-05-2013 at 11:23 AM. Reason: Damned Dyslexia!
The copter is a great gadget and, furthering the mind control idea, soe cleaver sods in Europe have used the tech to create mind controlled robotic legs! It's called Mindwalker and it even comes with it's own V.R. training suite. This is just one of the great things that can happen when engineers come together to solve problems. I'm not entirely sure but I don't think they asked the internet "how do robot legs?".
Last edited by Cake of Doom; 06-06-2013 at 03:29 AM. Reason: KHAAANNN!!!
Gotta agree COD. Yup, I remember seeing something about that recently. I would go a step further and say, I am sure they didn't ask about robot legs.
Yeah. Who knows what you might turn up with a google search for "robot legs"? Hmmm... engineer's day dreams...
I don't think I could live with the amount of anime images that would throw up.
