FINish the Waste

In this Design and Engineering unit we learned about the Fibonacci series, the golden ratio, exponents, scientific notation, area, and volume. The purpose of our assignment is to create something that represents and illustrates a global issue we are facing: material waste. To do this, our class was divided into groups, and each chose a material or item that is wasted a lot; my group chose plastic bottles. I am most proud of the installation I made out of water bottles for the action project because I think it’s interesting and a very special fish (named Fin).

HP: Sketch from Bottom (2014)

During this unit, we did some research to understand a little more about our item. Two very interesting and shocking statistics we read were that more than 60 million plastic bottles end up in landfills and incinerators every day (Franklin), and six times as many plastic water bottles were thrown away in the US in 2004 as in 1997 (Franklin).

We selected this material because I use at least two daily which really adds up over time, and because of the insane amount people all over the world use every day. When we found out just the daily amount we were shocked. Plastic is very bad for the environment. It comes from natural, chemically modified, and completely synthetic materials and it ends up in landfills or incinerated. Plastic’s main ingredients are ethylene, propylene, butadiene, vinyl chloride, terephthalic acid, adipic acid, sebacoyl chloride, hexamathylene diamine and bisphenol A (What are the ingredients used to make plastic?). However, there are many others. The first plastic based on a synthetic polymer was made from phenol and formaldehyde, with the first viable and cheap synthesis methods invented in 1907, by Leo Hendrik Baekeland (Plastic 2014). We want people to realize how bad wasting so much plastic and discarding so many water bottles is. Our planet wastes way too much of it. We want people to stop buying plastic water bottles and use a sports water bottle so they can use it over and over. Or to buy a filter and just drink filtered tap water.

As I stated earlier, 60 million (6 x 10^7) plastic bottles end up in landfills and incinerators every day. That means about 22 billion (2.2 x 10^10) plastic bottles are used in just one year! Moreover, we keep increasing the amount of plastic bottles that are manufactured and then throw away; as previously mentioned six times as many plastic water bottles were thrown away in the US in 2004 as in 1997. This increase is also shown in the graph below.

"Giving Back - a promise from Terra Polyester S.A. de C.V.." Internet: Terra Polyester

My group's installation is a fish made of water bottles. We used 6 water bottles to represent the 60 million plastic bottles that end up in landfills and incinerators every day. Each bottle represents 10 million. The design was inspired by the ocean, because oceans are the biggest bodies of water and fish swim in these waters. Any time people think of fish they also think of water. And if we run out of water, we will no longer have fish. Furthermore, plastic, which is our material, is a danger to aquatic life. The amount of plastic in the water often ends up inside aquatic animals which leads to their deaths (Conntoro). Plastic constitutes approximately 90% of all trash floating on the ocean’s surface, with 46,000 pieces of plastic per square mile (Oceans: Plastic Pollution).

The only obstacles we ran into during our project involved the building of our installation. Our first issue was with the shape of the fish: we couldn’t figure out how exactly we wanted the head and tail to look. Our next obstacle was with gluing: the hot glue melted our plastic so it was difficult to glue stuff together. Aside from that we had no problems with our project.

AG: View from Top (2014)

AG: View from Side (2014)

AG: View from Front (2014)

Sources

Conntoro, Mark. "Six Reasons Why Plastic Is Bad for the Environment." Creeklife. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.

Franklin, Pat. "Down the drain." Down the drain. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.

"Giving Back - a promise from Terra Polyester S.A. de C.V.." Terra Polyester. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.

"Oceans: Plastic Pollution." TakePart. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.

"Plastic." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Sept. 2014. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.

"What are the ingredients to make plastic?." Answers. Answers Corporation, n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.

Best Bike

This unit was about wheels, gears, and bikes. We learned how to calculate the circumference of a circle, how to calculate gear ratios, we learned about axles, we learned to graph circles, and we learned about the different parts of a bike. I’m proud of the graphing I did, because I haven’t graphed in a long time and I never learned to graph circles and which I learned quite quickly. The purpose of this assignment is to get us thinking about speed and user-friendliness. To do this, each group in class got a persona with specific needs, and we were asked to design a bike for them. With our new background knowledge that we got from professionals and basic bike users, we were able to design the perfect bike for each of our personas.

AG: Bike Sketch (2014)

From the research we did on existing bikes, one of the things I learned was that bikes with thicker tires will be able to withstand more damage (potholes, snow, rocks) than bikes with thinner tires. A bike with thinner tires can go faster on paved road whereas thicker tires will slow the rider down. Also that wider handlebars allow for more controlled steering because it gives you more leverage.

One quote that helped me with designing the new bike, was said by my friend RW: “Different handlebars, I would prefer bull-horn handlebars, so I could position myself differently while riding.” It helped me when designing because he gave me the idea to add bull-horn handle bars since our persona had the same issue.

The persona my partner and I got was Peter, who needs to ride 12 miles from Hyde Park to school. His legs get tired along with his arms, when they are in the same position for too long, not to mention his back hurts. He needs a secure bike because his last bike was stolen outside of school. He also needs a comfortable bike to make the 12 mile ride easier.

Our new bike that we made for Peter has many great features. It has a special seat, a space for a backpack, or other cargo, with a hook and something to buckle it down, a handlebar with different positions to hold, locks and GPS locators on the separate parts, and an electric engine.

• The shape of the bike allows the user to sit down and comfortably pedal. 
• The handlebar also rotates so there are very many holding options. 
• The GPS chips in the parts of the bike ensure that if the parts were somehow stolen, which is already unlikely due to the locks on the separate parts, that you could find them. 

The bike solves our user’s problems by providing him with comfort. His back problems are solved with the new seat, his arm tiredness get solved by being able to switch his arm position, and his leg tiredness is solved with the addition of an engine. The bike also resolves any security issues. The locks on the bike parts make the parts safe from being stolen, and if they are somehow stolen the GPS chips in them make sure they can be found again.

AG: Bike Labeled (2014)

The user should trust in our design because it is the safest, most comfortable option. Without our additions, bikes are more difficult to use and maintain. This bike solves so many problems that not only our user has, but many other people have as well, so instead of grinning and bearing it, now there’s a solution.

Peter lives 12 miles from school. With our bike it will take him about 36 minutes to get there with an average speed of 20 mph. His new wheel’s diameter is 26 inches and its circumference is 26 pi which is about 81.68 inches. The wheel will rotate 9,308.5 times on his journey. The scale we used for our model was 13 inches, so 1 inch on the model is 13 inches in real life. For example, the wheels on our model have a diameter of 2 inches and the actual wheel's diameter is 26 inches.

We took into consideration all of Peter’s different issues as well as the distance he must ride each day. Some of the obstacles were that he has to put his backpack somewhere while riding, he can’t wear it because of his back problems and because of the seat design. We solved this by adding a space for it behind his seat; he could strap the shoulder straps onto the seat, set it on the rack, hook it to the hook, and strap and buckle it in. Another problem was that his legs get tired, but it’s a bike so he still has to pedal. Our solution to this was adding the engine. This makes riding much easier and more effortless. Much less force is required, as the engine does most of the work for him so his legs don’t have to. The bike runs on a cordless lithium battery that is good for over a thousand charges. The battery will last up to 25 hours before needing to be recharged.

AG: Bike Model II (2014)

AG: Bike Model (2014)

AG: Bike With Terrain (2014)

A New Beginning

    In our first unit of Design and Engineering we researched and designed new tools. The tool my partner and I had was a tiller. We found our tool while on a field experience at Home Depot, where we also learned what it is used for. A tiller is a tool designed to loosen soil and provide it with more air. When designing a better version of the tool, we had to take into consideration how to make it usable by different types of people, such as elders or people with difficulty preforming certain tasks. Doing this shows empathy, which is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. I'm proud that I was able to design such a tool to help others that aren't always taken into consideration.

AG & TC New Tiller (2014)

    The purpose of this assignment is to see how we would recreate a tool that gives people problems nowadays. Our users are most specifically elders but can be used by people of all ages, and what makes them unique is that they would be able to use this tool no matter what height or size they are.

    As mentioned earlier our class went to Home Depot to learn about different tools. Experts there were very helpful. We also conducted our own interviews, mine being with my mother who has gardened for years. With all this new information I learned a lot. Some of the most important things I learned were that: certain tools are flimsy and won’t work properly, for example they will loosen and fall off the handle; the handle type is important, because certain materials will hurt your hands; and the weight is important, because if it's too heavy you might not be able to use it as well as you should be able to, and it will be more difficult to use. One of the quotes from my interview that really stuck with me was: “The shovel has a hard handle and it’s heavy which makes it difficult to use.”

   Aside from going to Hope Depot and conducting our interviews, we each had to do more research on our specific tool. Three important things I learned from this research were:
1) There are also electric versions of our tool.
2) There are also smaller hand versions of our tool.
3) The tools vary a lot in sizes and prices.

    Our new tool is a longer, sharper, and spikier hand tiller. With the new adjustable length of the hand tiller it won't cause back problems for taller people or shorter people. There would be a button or switch on the side to adjust it to the size that best fits you. The parts to this new hand tiller are: the wheel as a new handle, the adjustable length for different height varieties, and spikier tines (the outer ones being slanted). The new handle as a wheel helps get a better grip and keeps your hand secure while turning the handle. A wheel is easier to use than just a straight bar, because a circle is easier to turn; if the handle were just a straight bar you would have to stretch out your arms to grab the further side while twisting. The two inner tines are sharper in order to enter the soil more easily, and keep the tiller more in place. The outer tines are slanted with horizontal spikes and the bottom, which help the tiller cut through the soil. Other tillers don't have the horizontal spike added to the tines, which would make it more difficult to cut through the soil because the tines are vertical but the tiller is turning horizontally. Our improved tines solve that problem. However, since there are now spikes going to the side, the tiller can only be turned one way, which will be explained on the label. Furthermore, our tool is made completely out of stainless steel, aside from the foam covering the handle, which makes it easy to wash and doesn't result in rust.

AG & TC Vectors (2014)

    Three ways our tool is better than the competition are:
1) Our handle will be circular so it will be easier to turn.
2) There will be spiked ends on the side of the pokers at the bottom of the tiller, to make it cut through the soil more easily.
3) The middle part will extend so you can choose the length so it's customized to each person’s height.

    Our tool uses the wedge concept because to get deeper in the soil/dirt we had to add a slant into the outer spikes, which lets our tool cut through more dirt and creates more air pockets for the garden. Wedges focus all their weight into one point, and since you will turn the tool the way the spikes go, the weight of the tool will all go to the points of the spikes which will require you to use less force.

    Two things we took into consideration when redesigning our tool were:
1) What would make it easier for old people, or just everyone in general, to turn the tiller, so we turned the handle into a circle.
2) People’s height differences, so we made the tiller extendable (you can make it longer and shorter).

    The steps to use our tool are shown in the following pictures:

AG & TC Tiller Steps 1-4 (2014)

AG & TC Tiller Steps 5-6 (2014)