Longing for green engineering paper
Jan. 8th, 2003 02:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
redfishieup again from my cold. le sigh.
hmm..one of my problems right now at work, is trying to figure out how to do moments off of a circular platform. To put it in brief, I have a platform which is supported at three points (not equi-distant) with two of those points a 1/3rd of the way around the circle, and the 3rd is off center of that 1/3 distance. These points are actually flanges on a object. Further the points of contact are not exactly centered on the flanges due to some further geometry complications, but for a rough calculation I think I can at least intially say they are. I need to do a moment calculation to see if at the point farthest away from and furthest out of any of the supports on my circular platform a certain weight will hold. Aka this is a circular railing that should hold people, it would be good if say at the points between the supports, that if a person were to lean out, that it wouldn't cause the platform to shift off of its stand and topple on them and bring them crashing to the ground. it's a fairly heavy platform, but I need to figure out if i need more anchoring points for the drop dead weight of a human being. This is a very large number for safety sake - the equivalent the force of a large man dropping 6'. Now I *know* I can do this, I know how to do this....but it's been just long enough and the geometry is a little weirder than I described that I want to double check it. Heck a simple static calculation should tell me the max...
the thing i find odd about this, is this sort of thing makes me long to go buy engineering paper...it's strange how using it that much in school brainwashes you into wanting it whenever you do calculations. Heck, in school, using the magic green paper would usually guarentee you a higher grade on homework than if the same problem went on regular notebook paper. At least it always seemed that way. I'm yearning for a green engineering pad and mechanical pencils. I want my protractor like a baby wants its pacifier.
hmm..one of my problems right now at work, is trying to figure out how to do moments off of a circular platform. To put it in brief, I have a platform which is supported at three points (not equi-distant) with two of those points a 1/3rd of the way around the circle, and the 3rd is off center of that 1/3 distance. These points are actually flanges on a object. Further the points of contact are not exactly centered on the flanges due to some further geometry complications, but for a rough calculation I think I can at least intially say they are. I need to do a moment calculation to see if at the point farthest away from and furthest out of any of the supports on my circular platform a certain weight will hold. Aka this is a circular railing that should hold people, it would be good if say at the points between the supports, that if a person were to lean out, that it wouldn't cause the platform to shift off of its stand and topple on them and bring them crashing to the ground. it's a fairly heavy platform, but I need to figure out if i need more anchoring points for the drop dead weight of a human being. This is a very large number for safety sake - the equivalent the force of a large man dropping 6'. Now I *know* I can do this, I know how to do this....but it's been just long enough and the geometry is a little weirder than I described that I want to double check it. Heck a simple static calculation should tell me the max...
the thing i find odd about this, is this sort of thing makes me long to go buy engineering paper...it's strange how using it that much in school brainwashes you into wanting it whenever you do calculations. Heck, in school, using the magic green paper would usually guarentee you a higher grade on homework than if the same problem went on regular notebook paper. At least it always seemed that way. I'm yearning for a green engineering pad and mechanical pencils. I want my protractor like a baby wants its pacifier.
