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Hydrogen Properties for Energy Research (HYPER) Laboratory Cool. Fuel.

Trading Places and Ways

Mark Twain is widely considered one of the most intelligent Americans in history, but a more accurate description may be one of the most empathetic Americans in History. His first historical fiction novel, “The Prince and the Pauper” tells the story of two similar looking young boys of very different social class who trade places. This is an early example of relational empathy communicated in a way the masses could understand. The novel was later adapted for the 1983 movie “Trading Places” featuring Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd. The now classic story is one of many examples of how, even if magically, we … » More …

Reasons to do Rube Goldbergs

Rube Goldberg was an American engineering, inventor, and cartoonist infamous for his drawings of complex machines that perform simple tasks. In 1930, the Webster dictionary created a definition in his name:

Rube Goldberg definition

Mr. Goldberg lives on in infamy with many competitions to engineer complex machines in his name.  Note that Rube Goldberg is a Trademark of Rube Goldberg Inc. founded by Rube’s children to preserve his name. The internet is rife with STEM educational projects and products related to Rube Goldberg machines. Purdue, the City of … » More …

A walk down memory lane

I went for a walk through the University of Idaho’s Mechanical Engineering Design suite the other day. The tracks for hanging posters I hung in the halls 12 years ago are still in use. The rubber-band planetary gear demonstrator I made with a friend is still displayed in the meeting area. This is a community that I contributed to.

In many ways, our designed contributions are how we identify with and relate to a community through time.

To the group of UI ME graduate students that watched me in the hall, I was just a stranger passing by. When I pointed and said I made … » More …

ME 406 Lesson 7: Visualizing your Results

We’re now to the point where we’ve taken measurements and analyzed our confidence and uncertainties. One of the most rewarding parts of experimental investigations is graphing and visualizing your hard work. Usually this will appear in the Results and Conclusions section of your report.

5. Results and Conclusions

What would someone take away from your report if they only read the introduction and skimmed ahead to the results and conclusions? Make sure you don’t let them miss your most important points and findings! When you skim through something what do you look for? Odds are headings and images.

Why the images?

They’re worth a thousand … » More …

ME 406 Lesson 6: Data Analysis and Uncertainty Propagation

Now that we’ve covered the design/layout, procedure, and instrument calibration and traceability for our experiment, it’s time to start analyzing our data.

Section 4.3: Data Analysis and Uncertainties

The goals for this section of your report are

Show us what happens to a raw data point prior to being reported, such that the raw data can be analyzed by someone, somewhere else.
Show us where uncertainties of the reported values come from (i.e. bias error, precision error, etc.)
Quantify how confident you are in the reported measurements.
Conform to ASTM Standard E2586 – Standard Practice for Calculating and Using Basic … » More …

More thoughts on the thermodynamics of societal phase change

A few months back I posted some initial thoughts on the thermodynamics of societal phase change. I opened that post with the need to hit the ‘reset’ button on psychology studies world-wide. Just last week a new study in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences found a bug in the fMRI brain scan data used at the heart of psychology — a bug that changes a 5% positive to a whopping problem of 70% — and affects over 40,000 journal papers. So in short, psychology is desperate for solid footing from the physical sciences and the initial thermodynamic thoughts I posted keep fruiting, … » More …

ME 406 Lesson 5: Instrument Calibration and Traceability

In section 4.1 we created a table of key instruments for our measurements that included columns for instrument, purpose, make, model number, range, and uncertainty. Today we dive into the details of instrument uncertainty and traceability.

Many times knowing the precision/uncertainty of your measurement is just as, if not more, important than the value of the measurement itself. The question is: how can you quantify your confidence in the measurement? Two kinds of error will affect your instruments: Precision error and bias error.

Precision versus Bias error» More …

ME 406 Lesson 4: Experimental Setup and Procedure

Now that we have our motivation for an experiment established (Chapter 1), showed that there is a gap needing to be filled in the literature and standards for doing so (Chapter 2), and have a working model connecting what our client cares about to what we are measuring (Chapter 3), it’s time to start experimenting. Give us an introductory paragraph describing how this experimental chapter is organized. Begin with the following section:

4.1 Experimental Setup

The goals of the experimental section are two:

SHOW that you understand the key components of the experiment and how they work.
SHOW enough information so that the … » More …

ME 406 Lesson 3: Using Theory to Guide Experiments

In just about every job I’ve been in, people were tempted to label me as either a “theorist” or an “experimentalist”. — Don’t take the bait. It’s easy to fit into a stereotype, tough to break free of them. The very best engineers are competent with both the theory and the experiment. It’s what we call a positive synergy — knowledge of one aids the other.

This brings us to three general guiding principles for the Theory chapter of our reports:

Relevancy: Connect the primary motivations/needs/objectives for the experiment (performance, efficiency, outputs, etc.) to the key variables for the experiment (resistances, potentials, inputs, etc.).
… » More …