At 8:48 AM -0400 10/12/00, 735769 wrote: >Nick wrote; > >> >> The reason I ask is I am working with a grad student who is looking >> to do some testing on this subject. We are currently discussing the >> conditions to investigate. He wants to find out how strong the >> materials need to be, to be "strong enough". >> > >A challenging project, Nick. Just getting past the "strong enough" part >would challenge Solomon. (Nick already knows this and I mention it only to >suggest that he has probably already given this a lot of thought). Yes, it is a tough nut. The typical method in boat design is scantling rules which are based on past experience. A boat builder builds a boat for years using a certain amount of material and a certain method and gets reports back on how the boats holds up over the years and where there are problems. If something fails a lot the builder beefs it up, if it never breaks, he might slim it down a bit. If he decides to change materials or method he tries to make the new system as strong as the old system. Unfortunately, this system does not strike everyone as scientific enough. The grad student (Sam Mcfadden) wants to put some strain gages on a boat and go paddling. I think we might learn something interesting. Will he learn how strong is "strong enough". At best, only what is strong enough for the conditions he paddled in. But that might be interesting. He will also see where the stresses are in the boat. And we might be able to draw conclusion about other conditions by extension. One of the reasons I would like to hear stories of broken boats, how they broke and how they were built is to get more data for the less "scientific" method of actual experience. Some of the best science started with anecdotal information. Nick -- Nick Schade Guillemot Kayaks 824 Thompson St, Suite I Glastonbury, CT 06033 (860) 659-8847 Schade_at_guillemot-kayaks.com http://www.guillemot-kayaks.com/ >>>>"It's not just Art, It's a Craft!"<<<< *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Oct 12 2000 - 07:12:00 PDT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:30:32 PDT