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

Comments

Anonymous 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

Anonymous 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

The Polka Dot Door

A long time ago, when I was 22, my first child was born. That kid grew up on a little Canadian kid's show called Polka Dot Door, produced by the TV Ontario network. And Dad, more often than not, sat through those shows with his little one. Nine or so years later when a brother, and a year after that when a sister came along number one son was moving on to Knight Rider and The Dukes of Hazzard. But there was a nice overlap where his siblings picked up where he had left off with Polka Dot Door. And Dad was right there to welcome them. So you're looking at a Polka Dot Door veteran. The show began in 1971 and ran to 1993. I didn't watch the full run but I did get in my fair share. The formula was pretty simple. A young male and female host, which seemed to change every week, sang songs, told stories, made crafts and generally did their best stimulate little brains. The show opened as follows... Imagination Day! Oh boy! ...

30 Days of Photos III #4 Sour

Check out Ziva's Inferno for the rest of today's photos.

I Am Charlie, I'm A Bore

Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Mel Gibson, Tom Cruise, Colin Farrel...you know the list, it goes on and on. The list of Hollywood hick-ups who not content to meltdown behind closed doors have to drag each and every detail out into the light of day and share it with all of us. Well, add Charlie Sheen to that luckless and lascivious list of losers. In the past few days he's been on every major media soapbox complaining abut how he's been treated and how he's misunderstood. Last night he spent an hour on ABC's 20/20 "in his own words". Charlie, you should have stuck to the script. "I have a highly evolved brain". You know I never did like that song by Helen Reddy in the 70s "I Am Woman". But I have to say the melody really leant itself well to a parody of Hollywood's latest flame-out, Charlie Sheen. Although I never thought I'd hear myself say this, my sincerest apologies to Helen Reddy. And now if you're ready (a little play on wor...

nonamedufus

Search This Blog