Problem 249: Brain-buster buggy
The year is 2100. The dream of inhabiting the Earth’s moon has become a reality. Every engineering firm is vying for the big bucks designing equipment for the moon marooned.
After graduating college a young engineer named Chris lands a job with Buster’s Buggies, the premier moon buggy designer. Buster’s decides to really put their neophyte employee to the test. The first problem this young engineer must complete is a speed limiter design for their moon buggy, which will ensure that it will not go so fast as to slide off of its path.
Chris decides to gather some data by testing the buggy on the Buster skid pad on earth, a round racing track with a circumference of 314 m. The buggy begins to slide off the skid pad when it reaches 66.7 km/hr.
Chris also knows that there will only be one road on the moon, a circular path connecting the main buildings of the moon station. The path has a circumference of 471 m. It is assumed that the coefficient of friction between the tires and the asphalt will be the same on the moon as it is on the earth. The acceleration due to gravity on the moon is 1.619 m/sec2.
Help Chris impress the other engineers at Buster’s Buggies by calculating the speed at which the buggy will begin to slide off the moon road.
Solution to problem 248: Tanks a lot, July, 2001.
Winners circle
Fun problem 247: Gold grief June, 2001 Total entries: 116 Number correct: 99 (85%) Winner: Jerry Levinsky, Telford, Pa. Jerry’s prize: ETB-2000 software from UNIK Associates, Milwaukee, Wis., www.engineering-unik.com Reduce hours spent calculating to minutes. Use ETB-2000 to calculate gear forces, bending moment, heat loss, structured load calculations, screw conveyor hp requirements, hydraulic system pipe size requirements, and storage pile capacity, among others. Most programs use English and metric units, and on-line help and phone support are available.Puzzle us
Get your creative juices flowing and send us your original problems and solutions. If we publish yours, you’ll win a prize. Rich Rossi, Duluth, Minn., receives ETB-2000 software for submitting this month’s problem.