ATOT weekly Engineering and Creative Challenge WEEK 3 POLL UP

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YOyoYOhowsDAjello

YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
Aug 6, 2001
31,205
45
91
Originally posted by: DrPizza
Rule question:
Can the pennies still be in the wrappers? I don't want to have to rewrap $10 in pennies when I'm done.
Click to expand...

I would be shocked if The Boston Dangler allowed that.

The hardest part of the challenge seems to be stacking the actual pennies. Having them in wrappers would be a huge advantage.

Unless TBD comes in and overrules, I believe the intention of the rules was that the only things allowed are Post-It Notes and Pennies. A Penny wrapper is thus excluded.

The only thing you can use to make the entry are 12 Post-It Notes and then a bunch of individual and unmodified pennies. The only way to bind pennies together is with the Post-It Notes or with other Pennies.
 
YOyoYOhowsDAjello

YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
Aug 6, 2001
31,205
45
91
Originally posted by: Barfo
When's the deadline for the current challenges?
Click to expand...

As indicated in the OP, I will be posting the Poll sometime on Sunday the 19th.

Last week that was sometime in the afternoon I believe.

My sister is coming up to visit this weekend, so I don't know if I will be spending time with her or if I'll have access to a computer to organize the poll.

My intention is to rehost the pictures to a bbzzdd account that I control myself. I guess my goal is that this thread goes on for a long time, so I want to know where all the entries are and not have to deal with dead links down the road if someone wants to look at the past challenges. It's a bit of work though, so it requires some time to get going the way I want it.

That means that I will be putting up the poll on Sunday sometime, but to guarantee that your entry is in the poll, make sure that you submit before 1pm central time on Sunday the 19th.

If I'm busy, I might not make the poll until Sunday night.

I have no plans to include late entries into the poll once created.
 
D

DisgruntledVirus

Lifer
Dec 26, 2007
11,782
2
76
Well so much for my idea.... It's already going to be blown away (and I have yet to even go get the pennies)...

Hmmm back to the drawing board then (and include multiple penny stacks instead of the single my initial design had gone for).
 
YOyoYOhowsDAjello

YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
Aug 6, 2001
31,205
45
91
HomeBrewerDude, I hope you're putting my pennies to good use tonight. I want pics in here whether you fail or not.
 
The Boston Dangler

The Boston Dangler

Lifer
Mar 10, 2005
14,647
2
0
Originally posted by: DrPizza
Rule question:
Can the pennies still be in the wrappers? I don't want to have to rewrap $10 in pennies when I'm done.
Click to expand...

the approved materials list, weeks 2 engineering challenge:

12 standard size (3" x 3") Post-It notes
Lots of pennies (1 more than your tower can support )
If you do not have access to U.S. pennies, use a foreign equivalent
Click to expand...

i don't see wrappers on the list. do you? :D
 
xanis

xanis

Lifer
Sep 11, 2005
17,571
8
0
Can you just count one of the t-shirt designs in the store? I've got 3 of them up there. :p
 
HomeBrewerDude

HomeBrewerDude

Lifer
Jan 18, 2001
14,465
1
0
Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
HomeBrewerDude, I hope you're putting my pennies to good use tonight. I want pics in here whether you fail or not.
Click to expand...

Well, as promised I got the 8 yr old and we did a couple of things.

First, we built a McLaughlin style tower using triangular columns. 6 on the bottom and 5 on the top. After stacking a few rows I surmised that I didn't want to deal with such a slender and delicate tower.

McLaughlinDesign.JPG

So we moved quickly to plan B. or 2.0 if you will. At this point I'm starting to think about the bridge over the Tacoma River ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDrnNztzhvg ).

Regardless, I decided to test a open circular column structure. This was strong enough to support approx 850 pennies plus tuperware, but I didn't like the way it settled down a bit when some of the edges of the post-its crimped.

OpenColumns.JPG

So I sealed off the columns using the sticky strip and went with a 5 column structure.
HBDtowerOpennys.JPG

HBDtowerOpennies2.JPG

As you can see, the advantage is that there is more surface area to this structure allowing a platform large enough to hold 7 stacks of pennies.

I stacked and stacked and was surprised at how much fun this was.

Here is a video of the last few minutes of this tower.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIq5Cer788M

The end result was 792 pennies.

It shows some interesting defects. First, the tower wasn't very plum. Improving the alignment of the lower adn upper columns plus the pennies themselves will yeild an extra 4 rows (200+) of pennies IMO. Secondly, you can see the tower starting to slowly collapse. Perhaps improving the way the columns are made would lead to further improvements. I rolled these by hand and fairly quickly. I think making a jig or some other tool to uniform the construction would also allow another 100-200 pennies to be added. I think this structure could reach 1200+ pennies if you take your time and are careful with the construction.

 
YOyoYOhowsDAjello

YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
Aug 6, 2001
31,205
45
91
You did that on purpose, didn't you, HomeBrewerDude...

792 is my room number at work ;)

Nice work :D

I'm glad that interlocking pennies stuff we discussed earlier works so well.
 
The Boston Dangler

The Boston Dangler

Lifer
Mar 10, 2005
14,647
2
0
Originally posted by: HomeBrewerDude
Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
HomeBrewerDude, I hope you're putting my pennies to good use tonight. I want pics in here whether you fail or not.
Click to expand...

Well, as promised I got the 8 yr old and we did a couple of things.

First, we built a McLaughlin style tower using triangular columns. 6 on the bottom and 5 on the top. After stacking a few rows I surmised that I didn't want to deal with such a slender and delicate tower.

McLaughlinDesign.JPG

So we moved quickly to plan B. or 2.0 if you will. At this point I'm starting to think about the bridge over the Tacoma River ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDrnNztzhvg ).

Regardless, I decided to test a open circular column structure. This was strong enough to support approx 850 pennies plus tuperware, but I didn't like the way it settled down a bit when some of the edges of the post-its crimped.

OpenColumns.JPG

So I sealed off the columns using the sticky strip and went with a 5 column structure.
HBDtowerOpennys.JPG

HBDtowerOpennies2.JPG

As you can see, the advantage is that there is more surface area to this structure allowing a platform large enough to hold 7 stacks of pennies.

I stacked and stacked and was surprised at how much fun this was.

Here is a video of the last few minutes of this tower.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIq5Cer788M

The end result was 792 pennies.

It shows some interesting defects. First, the tower wasn't very plum. Improving the alignment of the lower adn upper columns plus the pennies themselves will yeild an extra 4 rows (200+) of pennies IMO. Secondly, you can see the tower starting to slowly collapse. Perhaps improving the way the columns are made would lead to further improvements. I rolled these by hand and fairly quickly. I think making a jig or some other tool to uniform the construction would also allow another 100-200 pennies to be added. I think this structure could reach 1200+ pennies if you take your time and are careful with the construction.
Click to expand...

well done! i think differences in the final submissions will be more subtle than i guessed.
 
YOyoYOhowsDAjello

YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
Aug 6, 2001
31,205
45
91
Originally posted by: Freshgeardude
glad to see others copied my idea and just had more pennies than I did :p
Click to expand...

No offense, but I don't think we're copying your idea. It just seems like the logical way to do it. It needs to be 6 inches tall, so two layers of 3" supports gets you there.

What would make sense besides two layers of 3" columns that wouldn't by "copying" you?

 
YOyoYOhowsDAjello

YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
Aug 6, 2001
31,205
45
91
Possibly the last work day to "borrow" 12 of Post-It notes from work and make a tower over the weekend bump
 
YOyoYOhowsDAjello

YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
Aug 6, 2001
31,205
45
91
Originally posted by: HomeBrewerDude
First, we built a McLaughlin style tower using triangular columns. 6 on the bottom and 5 on the top. After stacking a few rows I surmised that I didn't want to deal with such a slender and delicate tower.

McLaughlinDesign.JPG
Click to expand...

Oh and since you said you were trying to start an internet insult fight of some kind, I'd like you to know that the setup of your McLaughlin tower was too close together ;)

As you can clearly see, my column placement was farther apart than your shoddy McLaughlin tower.

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/Y...sDAjello/SideView2.JPG

Also, I'd like to mention for the record that the goal with my tower was to beat 253 pennies so that freshgeardude's team wouldn't be able to use the "but we're in the lead and put a lot of time into it" reasoning for why we have to continue the 6" and 12 Post-It Note requirement. After seeing that I could support the equivalent of 600+ pennies on the tower, I thought that would be enough of an example that we should change the requirements so that running out of pennies was an unlikely scenario.
 
sao123

sao123

Lifer
May 27, 2002
12,653
205
106
idea for your next creative challenge.

make holiday decorations from stuff:
broken computer/printer/Fax/telephone (IT) equipment + CD's + Disks

a few examples of my previous work:

Text
Text
Text
Text


when I get a chance, ill take a picture of my reindeer, angel, and manger to add to these.

i of course will not enter this contest... since its my idea, (and I already have mine done).
 
Freshgeardude

Freshgeardude

Diamond Member
Jul 31, 2006
4,506
0
76
Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Originally posted by: Freshgeardude
glad to see others copied my idea and just had more pennies than I did :p
Click to expand...

No offense, but I don't think we're copying your idea. It just seems like the logical way to do it. It needs to be 6 inches tall, so two layers of 3" supports gets you there.

What would make sense besides two layers of 3" columns that wouldn't by "copying" you?
Click to expand...

well ya ur saying that now :p
 
Freshgeardude

Freshgeardude

Diamond Member
Jul 31, 2006
4,506
0
76
Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler
Originally posted by: Freshgeardude
glad to see others copied my idea and just had more pennies than I did :p
Click to expand...

you're not stopping developement, are you?
Click to expand...

i dont have any more pennies or I would continue :( I have other change like nickels, dimes and quarters tho
 
The Boston Dangler

The Boston Dangler

Lifer
Mar 10, 2005
14,647
2
0
Originally posted by: Freshgeardude
Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler
Originally posted by: Freshgeardude
glad to see others copied my idea and just had more pennies than I did :p
Click to expand...

you're not stopping developement, are you?
Click to expand...

i dont have any more pennies or I would continue :( I have other change like nickels, dimes and quarters tho
Click to expand...

dude, go to the bank. get a bunch of pennies. play with them.
 
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