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For The Engineers Out There

PLEASE RESOLVE THIS BEFORE LOOKING AT THE ANSWER BELOW

Conditions:

A backhoe weighing 22 tons is on top of a lowboy trailer and heading east on Interstate 70 near Hays, Kansas .
The extended shovel arm is made of hardened refined steel and the approaching overpass is made of commercial-grade concrete, re inforced with 1 1/2 inch steel rebar spaced at 6 inch intervals in a criss-cross pattern layered at 1 foot vertical spacing.

Solve:
When the shovel arm hits the overpass, how fast do you have to be going to slice the bridge in half ?
(Assume no effect for headwind and no braking by thedriver...)
Extra Credit:
Solve for the time and distance required for the entire rig to come to a complete stop after hitting the overpass at the speed calculated above.
Yes, you can neglect friction.


I couldn't solve it either......but who cares;
The pictures are great! The driver was on his mobile 'phone..................


merci Alec
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Comments

Count Sneaky said…
Amazing photo. Either they make these machines tougher than hell...or the bridge was made of styrofoam. Count Sneaky
16 March 2009 at 21:13
Count Sneaky said…
I have rethought the engineering involved and decided it was a case of DUUI(Driving Under Undescended Intellect). I hope this clears up any remaining technical questions. Count Sneaky
17 March 2009 at 16:15
nonamedufus said…
Count: You've heard of DUI? This is DIU: Driving Into Underpass
18 March 2009 at 09:27
Anonymous said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
23 January 2010 at 09:20
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