Quote:
Originally Posted by ToddF
... Whether it's because of imprecise language or because they have learned the wrong lessons, you see a lot of half-true design rules quoted by students (and occasionally mentors) on CD. I think as mentors we're responsible to explain to the students how these design rules are context dependent, and how the underlying assumptions affect their design decisions.
|
Spot on Todd!
There are MANY variables that have to be taken into account when designing a system, and this applies to almost any "system".
The language we use to communicate those ideas has to be correct, and should be thorough. Leaving out small details can lead to misunderstandings, as can been seen in this thread.
In this vein, here is what we will be doing in the next couple weeks.
We have a prototype we are satisfied with. It will be put into CAD, and then built accordingly.
Once built, we will run a couple thought experiments (Hypothesis), run several tests (Experimentation) , and then formation of our conclusions.
The goal of this is to optimize our catapult for competition based on the actual design we are using.