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Unread 20-09-2012, 09:47
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Andy Baker Andy Baker is offline
President, AndyMark, Inc.
FRC #3940 (CyberTooth)
Team Role: Engineer
 
Join Date: May 2001
Rookie Year: 1998
Location: Kokomo, Indiana
Posts: 3,420
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Re: Densest Building Materials

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gary Dillard View Post
I use Andy Baker to build my drive trains. He's pretty dense
My weight is about 225 pounds. My volume is somewhere between 10,000-15,000 cubic inches (rough guess). If we assume the smallest volume of that range and divide 225/10,000 that equals 0.0225 lbs/in^3.

Considering these commonly used robot-construction materials:
  • Aluminum = 0.1 lbs/in^3
  • Plastic = 0.05 lbs/in^3
  • Steel = 0.28 lbs/in^3
... and comparing them to my meager density of 0.0225, then I would strongly suggest not to put me on your robot.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard View Post
Back to FTC ballast -- I recommend U.S. Pennies. You get 100 for only a dollar. They are 0.75 inch in diameter, 0.061 inch thick, and made almost entirely of zinc. A stack of 182 is just over 11 inches long and weighs about one pound.

If you have a bigger budget, try U.S. Nickels. They are slightly larger in diameter (0.835 inch) and made mostly of copper, which is denser than zinc. Their larger diameter and density means you only need a 7 inch stack (91 coins, or $4.55 worth) to make one pound of ballast. This is 2.5 times the cost of Penny ballast, at 1.282 times the density.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JesseK View Post
I just knew that one of these days someone would suggest a feasible way to throw more money at a problem. Mo' money? Problem solved!
You may as well just pull out the big guns and use a stack of these!

Andy B.

Last edited by Andy Baker : 20-09-2012 at 09:51.