Cement Canoe With A Contrarian Approach

Markgor writes: "There is an article in Wired News today about a group of students at the University of Alabama (Huntsville) who entered into the 2001 ASCE/MBT National Concrete Canoe Competition with a canoe that was built to achieve forward propulsion through matching natural resonance."

"Normally, if two objects share an exact natural resonance, the excited vibrations would usually lead the weaker object to fall apart, much like the Tacoma Narrows Bridge did when the equal frequencies of the wind and the structure of the bridge matched. However, since the canoe was designed with a special mix of concrete, it was flexible enough to withstand the vibrations and harnessed it into forward propulsion. They're now talking about its possible use in space, such as interplanetary probes using natural resonance to propel itself."

Comments

Re:Concrete?

[Chairboy]

Don't confused concrete and cement. Concrete is a simple name for composite construction. A concrete highway is often made up of a composite of steel rebar, cement, gravel, etc.

Cement, on the other hand, is a specific name for a substance, often alumina, silica, lime, iron oxide, and magnesium oxide. Cement is often used in the construction of concrete as part of the composite.

Composite structures != carbon fiber/kevlar/etc exclusively. Composites have been used for hundreds of years to make lightweight, strong things. This is merely the latest example of exactly that.

Like Homer says

[thejake316]

In this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics!