Location of NYC, The reason Unveiled! Coincidence or fate??? You decide!!

[Elgin Clock]

Remember all the talk Dean did last year at Nats about clean water and the need for machines to make water drinkable in countries around the world??? Well it must be fate that this years NYC Regional at Riverside Park in NYC is right next to none other than a WATER POLLUTION CONTROL PLANT!!!!!

Yes my friends the area of the park that we are heading to on 145th St. is right next to the North River Water Pollution Control Plant!!!

Coincidence???? I think not!!!!!

[Amber H.]

Maybe FIRSTies will be honored with a public demonstration of the new Stirling engine.

If so, it might be more interesting for you all if you read up on Boyle's law.

[Adam Y.]

errr Im not up to that in Boyles law. Actually I now know how a hydrogen electric car works but not a stirling engine.

[Amber H.]

Originally posted by wysiswyg
errr Im not up to that in Boyles law. Actually I now know how a hydrogen electric car works but not a stirling engine.

Mr. Kamen said in an article that the principal they were working on was based on Boyle's law and another one that is related to it that is often mentioned in conjunction with it. I can't remember it right off hand right now, but you will find it in:

MSN Encarta's online encyclopedia.

It has to do with temperature and pressure and thier ratios as they change within a cilyndrical chamber. It's pretty cool. I think my father might have mentioned it to me once or twice in his own approach on the Stirling engine puzzle. He's a font of information but I won't give you his number. I don't think he'd appreciate a bunch of teenagers calling him up out of the blue.

You will also find it in:

J.D. Bernal's "A History of Classical Physics"

Good starting point for a general overview. It helps to give an understanding of how one discovery leads to another and how so many things we do today go right back to the ancients. Regrettably the illustrator got the Egyptian glyphs backwards in one of the figures (Oops!). But the point is still effectively made with the illustration.

Barnes & Noble might still have it.

[Ian W.]

grr, but NYC is also the same date as SPBLI, which really annoys me. they should have made it different dates, so teams in the area could do both...

/me goes off to cry in a corner

[Amber H.]

Originally posted by Ian W.
grr, but NYC is also the same date as SPBLI, which really annoys me. they should have made it different dates, so teams in the area could do both...

/me goes off to cry in a corner

/me offers hug. OOOOOOOOOOOO!

[Rich Wong]

FYI:
The NYC Regional venue will be at the Riverbank
State Park which has a larger capacity than Columbia
University but they will accept less teams!

I was told that Columbia U. (the old Venue for 2001,2002)
did not want FIRST back.

[Mike375]

I really could care less where the nyc regional is held, as long as it is nyc (guess they wouldnt have the nyc regional in iowa) but i think for FIRST's sake, having an event at an Ivy League school is worth some bragging rights. I never did really feel overly welcomed at Columbia the past 2 years, and I'm hoping this new venue will have better designed robo-moving traffic routes and a larger pit area than columbia had last year. I find what was mentioned above about less teams being able to participate at the new venue puzzling, since none of the new regionals are in the metro area and more teams sign up every year. I hope FIRST didn't make this decision based on NYC schools dropping any teams.

[dlavery]

Originally posted by Miss Tree
Maybe FIRSTies will be honored with a public demonstration of the new Stirling engine.

If so, it might be more interesting for you all if you read up on Boyle's law.

Boyle's law works! If you have ever had any doubt, try this simple test:

- step 1: while standing at approximately sea level, measure the circumference of your waist
- step 2: eat a big plate of baked beans
- step 3: board any commercial airliner
- step 4: measure your waist again
- step 5: apologize to your fellow passengers, and note that the entire air volume of the aircraft should be exhausted and replaced within 30 minutes, and that it doesn't really smell that bad
- step 6: measure your waist again

Commercial airliners with pressurized cabins regularly drop the ambient pressure during flight to an equivalent of 7000-9000 feet of altitude. If gas is placed within a closed volume at a pressure equal to the external pressure, and then the external pressure is decreased, a pressure differential will form between the internal and external volumes. The trapped gas will attempt to reduce the pressure differential by either expanding the original contained volume to a new (larger) volume or by reducing the internal pressure by venting gas to the exterior, or a combination of both. As these events happen, the size and location of the pressure differential changes. Over time, this forms a pressure wave, which can be used to perform work.

Stirling engines use these same fundamental principles to operate. They take advantage of the temperature difference between the two sides of the engine to cause the formation of a pressure wave (i.e. they use temperature to change the gas pressure instead of changing the external pressure by flying beans in an airliner). The two pistons then control the movement of the pressure wave between the two sides of the displacement piston to move the piston back and forth, and extract work.

I wonder if Dean's engine can run on beans...

-dave

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From simple observations such as these, come the lessons of life...

[Amber H.]

Mr Lavery, or should I say, Mr. Beans;
Please oh please tell me you really didn't do that to those poor airline passengers!

[E. The Kidd]

Originally posted by Elgin Clock
Remember all the talk Dean did last year at Nats about clean water and the need for machines to make water drinkable in countries around the world??? Well it must be fate that this years NYC Regional at Riverside Park in NYC is right next to none other than a WATER POLLUTION CONTROL PLANT!!!!!

Yes my friends the area of the park that we are heading to on 145th St. is right next to the North River Water Pollution Control Plant!!!

Coincidence???? I think not!!!!!

have they told u about the smell that creeps from there sometimes?

anyway could this be the reason why dean mentioned that NYC was a media capital for FIRST? and what happened to NYC being on its own weekend?

[dlavery]

Originally posted by Miss Tree
Mr Lavery, or should I say, Mr. Beans;
Please oh please tell me you really didn't do that to those poor airline passengers!

While in college, my house mate and I developed a wonderful concoction known as "Glop" (so named because that was the sound it made when a spoonful of it hit the plate). Glop consists of a whole bag of Doritos (crunched up into Dorito dust), a pound of hamburger, a whole Vidalia onion, a half package of Velveeta cheese, a large can of Hormel chili with beans, and a whole bottle of Tabasco sauce. The exact preparatory process is a closely guarded secret, but the results are awesome. While delighting in the gastronomic results of a single recipe of Glop, we began a heated debate regarding the untapped potential for demonstrations of various laws of chemistry and physics through the creative use of the contents of our larder.

Without confirming or denying any one particular incident, let me just say that several experiments were attempted at various times and locations, with varying levels of success. Many (but not all) of these experiments were conducted without requiring our forced removal from public transportation. The results of our research are documented in an as-yet-unpublished manuscript, but I will admit that flaming toaster pop-tarts were one of my favorites, and we also discovered that Easy-Off Oven Cleaner makes a horrible pizza topping (but that is a story for another time…)

-dave

[Amber H.]

Ahhh...yes the gastronimoc experiments of the practical joking community.

My father did a similar experiment. Every saturday night Dear Papa would have a big bowl of chilli with a fried egg and cheese on top. Then for breakfast on Sunday, he would have the same thing with the added bonus of a handful of peanuts as we headed out the door to church.
Our family always sat behind group of elderly ladies that always sat in the same pew together. We called it widow's row.
Father would then silently let the various er....pockets of air slip from his system. He would sit there and quietly snicker to himself as the lovely old sisters would turn and look suspiciously at one another. It was so embarassing.........