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.
Tag: bridge
Tightropes and slacklines – the math(s)
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 […]
STV preview of McGonagall poem modern debut
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 […]
Poem for the Dundee Ig Nobel show
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 […]
Got BABE?
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.
Bridge inspection question
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.