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Tag: bridge

A New Engineering Opera, in the Ig

August 23, 2021 Marc Abrahams

The theme of the 2021 Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, evinced in the opera and other bits, is ENGINEERING. The ceremony will include the premiere of a new mini-opera called “A Bridge Between People”. The crude drawing you see here summarizes the opera’s plot.

Arts and Science, Ig Nobelbridge, engineering, opera

Tightropes and slacklines – the math(s)

December 11, 2013 Martin Gardiner

A good number of people would probably find walking across a tightrope or slackline a decidedly non-trivial task. If it helps, assistance is at hand in the form of a comprehensive mathematical analysis which looks not only at the effect of the human on the rope, but also the rope on the human – in […]

Arts and Science, Ig Nobelbridge, mathematics, rope, slackline, tightrope, wobbling, wobbly

STV preview of McGonagall poem modern debut

March 11, 2011 Marc Abrahams

The Scottish TV network STV produced a preview of the historic (and completely unimportant) event that will happen on Saturday evening, March 19 at the University of Dundee: The modern debut of poems by the wretched poet William Topaz McGonagall — poems that are not published in any book and that have not been performed […]

Arts and Sciencebridge, Dundee, McGonagall, poem, Tay

Poem for the Dundee Ig Nobel show

March 13, 2010 Marc Abrahams

In tribute of a sort to tonight’s Ig Nobel show at the University of Dundee, not far from the Tay Bridge, here are the concluding lines of William McGonagall’s mortal poem “The Tay Bridge Disaster“: Oh! ill-fated Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay, I must now conclude my lay By telling the world fearlessly without the […]

Arts and Sciencebridge, Dundee, McGonagall, poem

Got BABE?

January 27, 2010 Marc Abrahams

BABE is an expert system for bridge designers. And to some people, it’s worth singing about. Read about it in the study: “BABE: An Expert System for Structural Design of Bridge Abutments and Piers,” H. Zheng, G. K. Mikroudis, S. Pamukcu, and Z. X. Hu, Computer Utilization in Structural Engineering, 1989, pp. 372-381.

Arts and Science, Research Newsbabe, bridge, engineer, Music, software

Bridge inspection question

January 15, 2010 Marc Abrahams

Question: Are bridges inspected often enough in Massachusetts? Data (from the Boston Globe, January 15, 2010): Debris falls from McGrath Highway bridge in Somerville … He said an engineer hired by the agency was performing a routine inspection of the bridge when he heard the debris shatter.

Arts and Sciencebridge, inspection, safety
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