Engineers in Training: Beam Me Down

One of the tedious aspects of being a scientist or an engineer is the need to the create and maintain good records about what you are working on. What kind of records do we need to create when discussing beams?

We need to record things like size, cross sectional area, section modulus, and moment of inertia. When we start testing the beams, we'll also want to know how much weight they supported before they failed, and their failure mode. Putting these items into a readable form can take some effort, so you can use the provided data form if you like, or you can make your own on graph paper with the columns just described.

It is important that the data you record is accurate. There is a difference between precision and accuracy. Precision indicates how many significant digits appear in the answer, while accuraacy indicates how close to the right answer you are. For example, it is more accurate to say that pi = 3 than to say pi = 4. But, pi = 3.14159 is a more precise answer because it is not truncated as much as 3 is.

For Beam Me Down, we're concerned that you slowly add weights to the beams when testing, and that you correctly sum the weights that the beam holds when you record the failure point.

Let's move on to building the beams.