Team Emel

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This is the Team Emel Ball Drop page!

Information

On Friday, September 7th, at 7:00, we'll be meeting to work on our ball drop.

- Andrew

We did a great job guysss!!! :) :)


--Kara <3

Team Members

Project Design and Initial Ideas

Photos from the preliminary brain storm:

Initial Design Notes: Our First Work Day!
Initial Design Notes
Initial Design Notes

Final Sketches

The Not-a-Car from above!
and from the side





























































Final Design and Completed Not-a-Car

Below is a picture of the completed design.

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Things we wanted to include in our final design were: 1) Maximum surface area, 2) Balance, and 3) Strong initial velocity.

First, we maximized the surface area for the wings with the materials we had. We considered various other wing designs (see design process), but this one was ultimately chosen because it provided the most area for the wings.

Second, we considered different ways of attaching the ball to the plane, but it was difficult to attach the tennis ball without causing a massive imbalance. Ultimately, we cut the tennis ball in half (one half on the front, the other on the back) to equitably distribute its weight.

Third, we used the rubber band to create an initial launch of the glider. Rather than releasing it from rest, which would have questionable results at best, we decided that an initial launch would maximize our distance.

Results and Conclusions

Our total distance from the base of Hicks was **INSERT DISTANCE**

We were a bit disappointed that it fell into the tree. It seems that the biggest problem was one that we tried hardest to fix: weight distribution. The glider made a good start, but had a tendency to fall quickly after a short distance. It seems that with the weight distributed on the front and back end, once it tipped a little bit, the weight brought it into a quick dive. If we did it again, one change would be the location of the tennis ball. We should have cut it into many smaller pieces and attached them throughout the body of the plane. That way it wouldn't have just been balanced on the two ends but balanced throughout the whole plane. The increased stability might have increased the distance before it dive-bombed. However, with a middling distance among the groups, we aren't too disappointed.

The plane after being removed from a tree.

The Name

While some say that the team names were generated at random, others speculate that the name Emel has some hidden meaning or reference. The leading theory is that Emel refers to the Muslim lifestyle magazine, seen in the below image. What relationship this has to Engineering is still unclear, but it is certain to be discovered sometime during the semester.


emel magazineEmel magazine.jpg See here for image location

Another possibility is that Emel simply refers to the Mary Lyons (ML) dorm where every member of the team currently lives; however, that theory seems skeptical at best, and there is little evidence to support it.