Twitter Weekly Digest for 2012-04-13
- When is Apple going to allow Podcast subscriptions on iOS? What happened to PC-free? #
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Twitter Weekly Digest for 2011-03-18
- Nuclear disasters summaries … http://is.gd/SeFvdK #
- Hybrid break-even cost analysis results… http://bit.ly/ebt9Ba #
- New plastic-less Pepsi bottles… interesting. http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Latest-News-Wires/2011/0315/Pepsi-bottles-no-more-plastic #
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Quite Possibly the Coolest Bridge in the World
Greetings everyone, and happy Thursday! Enjoy the autumn scenery around you while it lasts.
As you may already know, designing products and systems to meet the needs of customers and end-users is perhaps the most important job of an engineer. Fast Company released an article a few months ago describing a particular bridge that was designed to solve a peculiar vehicular traffic problem between China and Hong Kong – something that you don’t hear about everyday.
As the article describes, the problem at hand is that Hong Kong drivers drive on the left side of the road, while in China people drive on the right side of the road. So, what do you do about drivers crossing the border and needing to switch which side of the road they drive on? Naturally, smooth and continuous paths are more comfortable to drive on than paths consisting of sharp turns and stops, and the proposed Flipper Bridge addresses all of these needs brilliantly and elegantly in a neat figure 8 shape. Drivers that leave China on the right side of the road will enter Hong Kong on the left side of the road after driving across this bridge, perhaps hardly even noticing, and vice versa. While taking in the beautiful watery scenery, might we add.
Of course, just like many engineering designs, the Flipper Bridge is without shortcomings, as some people have pointed out. Some examples from the article and corresponding comments include questioning the safety of driving on the lower section of the bridge in the midst of high waves and mean weather in the vicinity, as well as making drivers aware that they are crossing into a region in which drivers drive on the opposite side of the road from where the drivers originated from. The seamless transition from right side to left side, or vice versa, can be dangerous to unsuspecting drivers.
Anyway, the images in the article depict the design quite well, especially the smooth curves and the grand figure 8 design. Check them out!
Twitter Weekly Digest for 2010-04-23
- Maintaining Engineerography is tougher than I thought … #
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Twitter Weekly Digest for 2009-09-25
- School is getting in the way of blogging. Consider this a respite? #
- For those in NYC, look for a boat filled with students on 9/25. It'll be going up the Hudson using pollution-free means http://bit.ly/10wlEI #
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