Full Stop

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Junkyard Wars : One Thread

This needs a bit of work, but the suggested challenge would be to build a device which would bring a moving vehicle to a full stop in a limited area.

This would be a bit like the "net barrier" that is deployed on Aircraft Carriers when a crippled plane is about to attempt a landing. The key idea would be a controlled dissapation of energy when the vehicle hits the barrier. For saftey and practicality, the vehicle should be a fairly light car, and not moving more than about 50 kph. (This also allows the teams to calculate the amount of kinetic energy they have to deal with).

-- Arthur Majoor (a_majoor@hotmail.com), February 15, 2001

Answers

And put our old favorite...the ostrich egg on the front of the hood. That could be the potential tie breaker...

-- Dan Denney (Rustrenegades@hotmail.com), February 15, 2001.

tail hook vs. net hmmm. Could a hydraulic pump be made to work as a brake? hmmm. flow control? cable+spool? spring+block and tackle? dead weight?hmmmm.

-- Rob.Fitterling (rpfit@hotmail.com), February 16, 2001.

Great big Hydrauilc cylinder with a valve open just a touch to choke the flow down would work to absorb the energy. Thats more or less how aircraft carriers do it. The experts could be some Cheif Petty Officers from that division on a carrier with the judge the Airboss from the same carrier. Great suggestion!

-- Stephen A. Binion (Stephenbinion@hotmail.com), February 16, 2001.

You know, this isn't bad. I rather like it. It has great possibilites. One way to do it is to tell the teams that they will have to stop identical "minis", or whatever it is they use for cars over there in the kingdom, which have devices installed ( like G-meters or crash dummies designed to measure the force used to stop the vehicles )and these vehicles will be run at controlled speeds into the teams crash barriers. The vehicles with the least amount of damage wins. The tie breaker would be the measured G forces, and of course, the ultimate tie breaker would be the obligatory Ostrich egg.

Or, how about having George and Robert drive specially prepared vehicles INTO each other, survivor wins. The teams would prepare specially constructed vehicles designed to protect the drivers in the event of a crash. Robert drives an over the road semi, and George gets the mini. ( Just kidding George, I think you're great. )

Or, George and Robert could drive the vehicles into the crash barriers.

I would suggest using lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of water barrels for crash barriers. I run into them sometimes on the highway just to watch the water spray , it's great fun.

Or maybe, just to spice things up a tick, how about running the vehicles down a runway, over a jump, and have them land into the "crash barrier" ? Through a flaming hoop of course. Over a pit of nails.

Or, maybe lift the vehicle with a crane to a height of 200 ft, and drop it into the crash protection matieral. Ostrich egg measurement device installed of course.

.....sorry, typing fingers got carried away...

bobwatts

-- bobwatts (watscarb@one.net), February 16, 2001.


or how about George and Robert doing a side show as Survivor or they can try at standup comedy and Cathy could judge. All in fun. I think they're all great.

My previous post used the word "sin" should have read "son" I'll blame the Keyboard (ya right! good try Jerry) Jerry

-- Jerry Johnson (jjohnson20@home.com), February 16, 2001.



Lots of interesting ideas here. I was only able to come up with some sort of friction device to bring the net and car to a stop. (Crashing into a barrier of oil drums isn't really a machine...what would the judges say?)

Now that I think of it more, you could also have horizontal arms extending into the road, pivoting against a spring or friction device, but this would be rather large, and hard to do in 10 hr, especialy if you want to place a bunch of them beside the road...

-- Arthur Majoor (a_majoor@hotmail.com), February 18, 2001.


ostrich egg?? Why an ostrich egg?

-- Ben Schleimer (bensch@uclink4.berkeley.edu), February 20, 2001.

Why not ;-). See the rocket episode.

-- Stephen A. Binion (Stephenbinion@hotmail.com), February 20, 2001.

I like the carrier idea. What about having to build an "aircraft" that would slide down a wire from some height, land, travel a short distance and then be stopped. The size of the "aircraft" could be controlled by how high the wire travels above the landing zone.

This would require some sort of sliding device or trolley, a way to perform a soft landing (springs or suspension), wheels for rollout, and a catch system to bring the pilot (egg) to a safe stop.

Would there be time in 10 hours to build an ejection seat in case of a crash?

-- Jeff Kuehl (jdkuehl@aol.com), April 22, 2001.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ