So far you’ve seen videos on the different things that other people have built. I’ve given links to different projects that involve mechanical engineering (energy cars, LEGO robot competition, etc.). I’ve even shown some of the things that I’ve done, ranging from an actual robot being made (the beast that is “Moses” – the first place underwater machine my teammates and I built while in high school) to design (as I did on my laptop in designing a component of the space telescope this past January).

Michael has already given a list of simple machines that we use everyday – levers, screws, wedges, etc. What different combinations of these simple machines can you think of to make a more complex machine – that is how it starts. Complex machines, when broken down to smaller pieces, are just various combinations of very simple machines (with a few more tricky ones). Think of a car: how many simple machines do you figure are used in making a car? Or even in a day in your life – just think of how many times you used a wheel and axle to get somewhere? A “screw” to tighten something? A lever to rotate or lift something, like a pencil sharpener? How many simple machines do you use in one day alone?

And another thing: to build something doesn’t mean it has to be hard. It doesn’t have to be anything as complex as a robot or a car or a telescope. A friend of mine once made a stand for a photo using paper clips and some pliers. Aaron and Mike made a system stacker out of cardboard, tape, and some books. I used a piece of cardboard taped to a ruler as a dustpan in my room. Anything that requires your mind and your hands to create something out of seemingly useless materials is something you have built, something created.

So just think about it…what things have you built? Are you working on a project right now? Or even better…what kinds of things would you one day like to see yourself building?

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While doing my routine online searches for cool EECS videos i came across these. I think you’ll enjoy them.

Transformer:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=STQ3nhXuuEM

Robot Fish:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=eO9oseiCTdk

Bionic Arm:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=4aixlFdZaOc&feature=related

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So there are 6 simple machines that are used in most things that we use today that make our lives easier. A common trait that they all share is that they are simple in that they have few components and that they need some sort of energy to put into them so the work is easier. This may sound complicated (or I explained it poorly), but the six are:

Lever
Incline
Wheel and Axle
Wedge
Screw
Pulley

Lever
A lever uses the principles of torque to lift something or remove something with less force. A clear example of this is when a nail is removed from wood. The back side of a hammer is placed under the nail and then pushed on the handle until it is moved. It takes a lot less force to use the hammer than to just try to pull out the nail with your own fingers.

Incline
An incline used gravity to help move an object downwards without breaking or damaging it in the process. In a parking garage, a car goes down the sloped levels instead of going off the edge because not only is the smarted choice (duh!) the car won’t be damaged by the fall. In a more realistic example of an incline, when on a bike, one usually does not pedal when going down a steep hill because gravity is pushing them down to go faster anyway; the incline uses the same principles of modern science.

Wheel and Axle
Well I am sure you all know what a wheel is but in general, it’s a round structure (wheel) that rotates around a fixed one (axle). A Wheelbarrow is one of the simplest versions of this. It is much easier to roll things in a wheelbarrow than to carry them.

Wedge
A wedge is used to push things apart. Your basic knife is considered a wedge, and so is an ax that is used to chop wood.

Screw
Screws are a little more complex, but no less common. It is actually an inclined plane wound around a pole that is used to either hold things together or raise/lower them. Some basic examples are soda caps, lids,… uhhh.. screws…

Pulley
A pulley is a simple machine that is used to redirect the force and can be used to move a load up or down. Examples of pulleys in everyday life are in window blinds, flag poles.

When combined, all of these simple machines can be used to form useful devices, or not so useful devices that are just cool to watch called Rube Goldberg machines.

A Honda commercial that came out a while ago was just a Rube Goldberg Machine (link below)

Rube Goldberg Commercial

Michael Fraser

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Thanks to everyone who attempted these questions. We know some people found them difficult but they were supposed to be. We wanted you thinking and doing research and finding out new information and getting interested in biological engineering. We decided that its about time we posted the answers to the questions so check them out and see if you were on the right track.

1. The answer is a eukaryotic cell. The hint was that only eukaryotes have a membrane bound nucleus while prokaryotes do not contain a nucleus. Instead, their DNA is found in a region called a nucleoid.

2. The mitochondria is the main structure in the cell responsible for cellular respiration which is the process that creates energy for the cell to use. The rest of the question was asked to get you guys to think about the many processes that occur to get ATP (the energy for a cell) and come up with an idea on how you think it might not function properly.

3. The disease is actually Huntington’s. The symptoms are very similar to some other conditions but they all add up to Huntington’s.

4. For this question, we’re not quite sure how to post the picture of a Punnett square and we’re not sure that we gave you enough information to actually complete this problem (we didn’t give you the genotypes of both the parents). The idea was to get you thinking about Punnett squares and to have you try to learn how to do them if you haven’t learned already.

Again, thanks for checking out our blog and check back often to see new posts!

-Macdaleine and Brenda

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Thanks to everyone who attempted these questions. We know some people found them
difficult but they were supposed to be. We wanted you thinking, do
research and find out new information all while becoming interested in biological
engineering. We decided that it’s about time we posted the answers to the
questions so check them out and see if you were on the right track.

1. The answer is a eukaryotic cell. The hint was that only eukaryotes have a
membrane bound nucleus while prokaryotes do not contain a nucleus. Instead,
their DNA is found in a region called a nucleoid.

2. The mitochondria is the main structure in the cell responsible for cellular
respiration which is the process that creates energy for the cell to use. The
rest of the question was asked to get you guys to think about the many
processes that occur to get ATP (the energy for a cell) and come up with an
idea on how you think it might not function properly.

3. The disease is actually Huntington’s. The symptoms are very similar to some
other conditions but they all add up to Huntington’s.

4. For this question, we’re not quite sure how to post the picture of a Punnett
square and we’re not sure that we gave you enough information to actually
complete this problem (we didn’t give you the genotypes of both the parents).
The idea was to get you thinking about Punnett squares and to have you try to
learn how to do them if you haven’t learned already.

Again, thanks for checking out our blog and check back often to see new posts!

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So you’ve seen some games that deal with mechanical engineering, and you’ve also seen some of the work I’ve been doing here at MIT. Here are some more videos about the projects happening here at MIT..

LEGO Robot Competition – So MIT has LEGO Robot competitions from time to time. Some classes here require students to put their skills to the test and create projects from the material they’ve learned. This class combines both mechanical engineering and electrical engineering/computer science.

Vehicle Design Summit – One of the biggest issues today is our use of energy and the effect on future generations. Here at MIT, students are working on creating a car that is environment-friendly, cheap, and uses less energy than the cars of today. I had the pleasure of helping to work with the research done on this car over the summer. For more info, visit Vehicle Design Summit.

This last video about Engineering Outreach Programs is a video filled with information about several summer programs that happen around MIT during the summer, including STEM, SEED, and MITES. You should see several familiar faces, including mine, and a few clips of the Underwater ROV competition that happened the summer the other bloggers and I were MITES students. My team’s (The Cardinals) machine is the red one with the black fin…the winning machine.

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OK so I finally posted a few of my programs for you guys to check out. They are all available for download on my brand-spanking-new Google page. Just follow your nose… or this link: http://atruck11.googlepages.com/home. Have fun!

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These days when people hear the word virus, the first thing they think of is computer viruses. Biological viruses that cause diseases are as rampant and dangerous as ever. Chemical engineers as well as biologists are researching medicines to treat people with viruses.

Ever wonder why when one person at your school gets sick, everyone else gets sick soon afterwards. Well, viruses are often the ones to blame. Here is a game that although not quite realistic does show how contact with viruses allows them to spread quickly.
http://www.addictinggames.com/madvirus.html

Not only do viruses spread quickly through the air, but they also spread quickly throughout the body. After looking at the following animated video, can you tell why viruses spread so quickly and why treating them can be difficult?
http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/animations/infection/inf_middle_frames.htm

So now you guys should have a better understanding of how viruses spread and work. Fortunately, for the most common viruses you are already protected by vaccines which help build up your immune system enough to protect against them. If you have any questions or want to know more about viruses or another topic, feel free to ask me.

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So you’ve seen a little bit of what Mechanical Engineering from the video Mike and I did. Mechanical engineering involves a lot of physics, which is basically how things move in the world around us. We have a few games that deal with physics for you to check out. Here’s a chance to see what other types of cool things one can do with mechanical engineering.

Bridge Builder – See what type of cool bridge designs you can make. How much weight can your bridge hold?

Blueprint – Use the available pieces to solve each puzzle. What strategies and basic concepts do you use to hit the target?

N3wton – Hit your opponent with a cannonball, but watch out – shooting doesn’t come without consequences. How is this game an example of Newton’s Third Law?

So now you should be able to figure out a little bit of physics from these games, which also helps you to understand mechanical engineering. Now try to answer this: Can you name four reasons why the engineering efforts of the Big Dig failed in the summer of 2006?

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