Slashdot Mirror
LEGO Competition Selects Three New Master Builders
H0NGK0NGPH00EY writes "The nationwide LEGO Master Builder search (covered here previously) came to a completion last week. At the last minute, LEGO surprised the competitors by announcing that they would select not one, but three Master Builders."
Uh, dude, the guy that did the Solo figure was one of the winners ... RTFA.
The guy who constructed the Han Solo and Deathstar is actually one of the selected contestants (mr. Sawaya, IIRC).
Okay... I'll do the stupid things first, then you shy people follow.
[Zappa]
Here are the Journal entries from the Slashdot candidate, Jamie. Classy guy, and I sure hope the Slashdot story didn't nix his chances.
Jan. 21st, 2004
03:37 am
Alas, my journey soon comes to an end...or possibly to a new beginning.
In just a few hours, I leave for San Diego. I can't sleep. I can't relax. I can't think. I'm a giddy/nervous/excited mess. The best way I can describe it is like sitting blindfolded on a chair with my hands and feet bound tight as others around me sing and dance and celebrate. Oh, how I can't wait to open my eyes and see all the wonderment that awaits me.
I thank you all for the outrageous support you've given me and hope I don't let you down. This whole experience has truly been remarkable.
Jan. 25th, 2004
10:07 pm
I made it home safe and sound tonight. I'm so lucky to have had my friends Matt, Tim & Howie along with me. Seriously, I really am not sure how the whole trip would have turned out had you not been there for me.
I didn't get the job, but I sure did have fun trying for it. I'll need a little while to compose my thoughts, but you'll be sure to hear from me with all the details soon. Congratulations to Nathan, Kristi and Aaron. I'm quite fortunate to have been surrounded by such talented and fun people during the competition. I will have fond memories of all the contestants and will smile many times as I think of them in the future.
I'll try to post pics of all the final creations from all the contestants on my website within a few days.
Thank you again to everyone for their encouragement and enthusiasm. I hope to see many of you over the coming weeks.
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
...when LEGO had laid offs recently.
Trolls lurk everywhere. Mod them down.
Eric Harshbarger's LEGO(R) Website
This site always cracks me up.
sadly the article uses it too. How can people go on thinking they are correct - despite the fact that the company whose product it is does not use the [made up] term at all.
Read the article.
The three winning entries:
1. Octopus garden
2. Two men cutting a log
3. Master builder playing with kids
after my "object" grows above about 1' in size, I have to use elmers glue to keep it from crumbling on me.
I've seen them put their creations together, and they also use glue to keep it all together.
Which is enough to calculate at what at point point a solid cube of ABS will fail under its own weight. (Depending on your definition of fail.. but lets use, in this example example, a failure is when the pressure due to the blocks weight excedes the compressive strength).
However, in order to calculate the failure for a lego construction, I need geometic information. Anybody want to weigh a lego brick and give me a detailed engineering diagram? I suggest we settle on the standard 4x8 brick. Note that the result will be affected by exactly how its constructed. Any bricklayers on slashdot care to make a suggestion on the best way to lay a 3 dimensional solid structure?
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
The who was the source of the original story has the following pics of the finals
"Which is correct as the plural of LEGO: 'Lego' or 'Legos'?
Neither, actually. The word 'LEGO', when used as a noun, should only refer to the company that makes the product. Otherwise 'LEGO' is supposed to be used as an adjective. Thus, when referring to the pieces, neither 'lego' nor 'legos' is correct... rather one should say: 'LEGO bricks' or 'LEGO pieces' or whatever (using LEGO as an adjective -- and one should really capitalize all of the letters, and put the little 'circle-R' symbol after it ((R))). This is all a matter of protecting the trademark of 'LEGO' for the company (using it otherwise degenerates the strength of the trademark). This is not to say that I use the word correctly 100% of the time... but that's the answer to the question (it's always fun/painful to read the near-flame-wars that start at slashdot.org over this topic... and generally, both sides are wrong)."
Depends, if you're talking about a solid cube, it'll be when the gravity generated by the cubes mass goes above the resistance factor of an individual cube.
If we consider 2cmx1cmx1cm pieces, and we consder that they weigh 20g each, we can assume that a cube with hight=width=depth=x we have (x^3)/2 blocks, the mass of which will be : 20*(x^3)/2=10(x^3)g
If we assimilate the cube to a sphere (not good, I'll agree, but good enough, since we're not going to build one) we can calculate the pressure in the centre of the cube by multiplying the radius of the sphere by the gravitational constant by the spheres density (here 10g/cm^3), put into SI we get p=x*10^(-8)*6.67.10^(-11). So, for the cube to collapse under it's own weight, you'll need to build one 100s of km accross at least.
OTOH if you just want to know how big it can get till the earth's gravitational field crushes it, then all you have to do is take it's weight (10x(^3)g) and devide by the size of the base (x^2) (*2 dure to the brick sizes), which gives you 20xg, so if it takes 3kg of presure to crush a brick, you'll need 20x=3000, so the cube needs to be 1.5 meters accross. That said, my lego's easilly stood 10kg-20kg of pressure (applied, not dropped on it) which would give you, on average (for 15kg) 20x=15000 or x=700, or a 7m cube.
HTH, and please correct me if my phisic's are wrong (I'm a Math/CS student, so I could well be)
David
Ask 8 slackers a question, get 10 awnsers (a citation, but I can't remember from who)
Here are pics (courtesy of /.'s fav candidate, Jamie) of the three winning entries:
Aaron Sneary
Kristi Klein
Nathan Sawaya
P.S. (Nathan Sawaya's creations have been featured on Slashdot before.)
You probably shouldn't click this.
Kristi Klein's creation is currently on display at the Art Institute of Los Angeles. The pictures don't really do it justice, its smaller then you might think, but quite elegant.