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Indestructible Super Mug To Save Humanity
prostoalex writes "Next time a ceramic mug falls on the ground, you won't have to buy a new coffee:"A team of undergraduates at the university in Socorro designed a ceramic mug that can fall 15 feet onto concrete pavement and still hold a full cup of java afterward without leaking."" Thank god I can sleep easy at night ;)
When I first read the summary, I thought these kids had designed some new interesting ceramic material that would prove to have many practical applications. After all, that's what the contest is for...
From TFA:
But the New Mexico Tech team used a different tactic...making part of their mug expendable, to save the rest. In short, they cheated.
Now don't get me wrong...I'm all for thinking outside the box...after all, I'm the one whose egg drop design in high school incorporated a parachute, ensuring my egg could survive a drop from any altitude. I was the clear winner, because I too 'thought outside the box'.
Did I get a commendation for my cleverness? Did I get a write-up in USA Today?
No. I got an F, despite there being no rules whatsoever prohibiting parachutes (although I hear they wrote in that rule the following year).
These New Mexico Tech students 'thought outside the box', and in doing so, completely subverted the whole point of the competition. Using this strategy, they managed to net second place, and they get a newspaper article for it.
Again, bah.
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
A team of undergraduates at the university in Socorro designed a ceramic mug that can fall 15 feet onto concrete pavement and still hold a full cup of java afterward without leaking.
The secret is to butter the bottom of the mug, thus ensuring that it always lands the right way up.
When you have nothing left to burn you must set yourself on fire
From TFA "It's rounded (at the bottom)"
That'll sit nicely on a desk...
Brocklesby Park Cricket Club
Thank god I can sleep easy at night ;) Not if you drink that cup of Java :-P
Here is a different article with pictures of the mug
Like the article says, the issue of dropping a mug to save coffee is entirely in the transfer of kinetic energy to the right places.
... yes, there's entropy and blah blah blah going on but this is a cut and dried version of what you should focus on.
... a million pieces. Ceramic plates were just a spider web on impact (quickly absorbing energy) but the glass seemed to almost always get one bounce.
As the mug falls, it gathers velocity towards the ground (thank you, gravity) and upon impact it stops when it meets the resistance of cement. This resistance means that the prior amount of kinetic energy must be absorbed at some point in the mug or absorbed by the concrete (not too feasible).
I'm going to say that I'm not accounting for everything here
The strategy behind their solution is that they used a "crumple point" at the base of the mug. What they refer to as "the bomb" is really just a crushable base that sufficiently absorbs the energy. Therefore, the energy does not transfer to the coffee (which would thus splash it everywhere). This is a lot like the crumple points on modern car frames. My car's frame has points at which, if I run into something, the energy will be absorbed in the event of extreme energy transfer. This stops the energy from transferring to my body and causing me to splash everywhere. Let me tell you, you do not want to splash everywhere; it's quite messy and rather painful. As a car designer, you'd like to know precisely where energy will be transferred to in the event of an accident so you create crumple zones. If a car is in a sufficient collision, often times it will be necessary to have the vehicle "pulled" which means spending a lot of money to have some goof put it in a very expensive machine that pulls on the frame until everything is back to near perfect specs and calibration.
I, on the other hand, prefer loading it onto a flatbed trailer, attaching a hand winch to both axles and laying underneath it and winching until your friend tells you that the doors can open and they no longer touch the front quarter panels. Alignment? Oh, that's just for rich people and inspectors.
Now, what I don't like about this mug design is that it seems to be a one shot deal for the mug. Yes, you've saved your coffee but your mug is shot.
I'm reminded of when I used to work in a restaurant and ceramic plates and glass would occasionally drop by mistake from my hands and the hands of coworkers. Now, as time went on, I noticed that glass objects like drinking glasses would have one bounce. I do not know why but they would have one bounce and then SMASH
Knowing this, if I saw an empty glass falling, I knew I had one bounce to try and save it but the bounces weren't always too high. Years of hacky sack training on sipas finally became useful. Now, there is a move I was taught that we called a "lazy man" that involved kicking the foot out but actually using the ankle movement to kick the bag up into the air. There were a few times when a glass dropped and after the first bounced I lazy manned it up and caught it and I was a god for 10 minutes at least in the back of the kitchen. Sure, there were times when it just looked like I was booting a glass into the wall but it was worth it. I always wondered if those saved glasses would ever get another bounce if they dropped again.
My work here is dung.
I think I'll stick my ole reliable Pessimist's Mug to cheer me up in the morning. If I drop it, it was not meant to be.
Using this strategy, they managed to net second place, and they get a newspaper article for it.
:) It is not in the name, and historicaly, the term university, has been reserved for large schools that are divided into multiple colleges. We are a small engineering college and we like it that way. Bigger is not always better - stop trying to ruin the school with your illusions of grandure.
That is the administrations improved PR in work.
As a proud alumni, I'd like to point out, just because our adminstration hates it when we do so, that the name is New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, and it is not a University
</rant>
Sorry for that. Several years ago the administration decided make increasing enrollment it's biggest goal, which came with talks of improving freshmen retention. Tech already accepts almost anyone who applies (a good thing), and about half drop out after before completing their junior year. While a couple classes seemed to be "weeding-out classes", most were reasonably challenging for those willing to learn. So there is naturally concern that standards will drop as a result of the administrations direction.
The practice of slapping the word Univerity into all the press releases started at the same time, and the two are linked in my mind, hence the rant.
Anyway, sounds like a fun competition, and best regards to the materials students that designed the project.
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
I have a mug that won't break either. Mine is made of metal.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Metal cups make the brew taste funny.
sadly, metal does not shield human fingers from java heat the same way ceramic does.