Through Engineers’ Eyes

This quick video highlights your progress towards Engineers Eyes. The concept wheel shows how it all fits together.

Week 6 concept wheel (Click to expand)

Forces from wind were the main new forces here. As I write, northern Australia is beginning to clean up after a category 4 cyclone that left a trail of destruction behind it. But despite 250km/h gusts, modern, properly engineered buildings stood up well. Analysis plus experience no doubt made this possible.

Rolling resistance also appeared this week.

You calculated wind load and aerodynamic drag using a ‘beautiful equation’, and from these quantities calculated the power needed by an electric car – and its range.

To find power you needed to know about work. These concepts are more often found in Dynamics courses, but although we were beginning to break out from statics, we wouldn’t be free of its restrictions until week 7.

Talking points

These are to get you started. Share any other thoughts you’ve had.

• What’s your reaction to ‘the equation for wind load is beautiful?’
• We wanted to include power in this course because it can be thrilling. How does it seem to you?

Share your experiments

Don’t forget to share your experiments on the Through Engineers’ Eyes Padlet wall for this week.