Nothing is impossible!

[martin417]

(this thread is a result of a post in this thread: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=66450)
"When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong."--Arthur C. Clarke

I don't know how many time I heard on this very forum all through January and February that "so-and-so will never work" or "This mechanism cannot do that". I believe that, while well intentioned, these comments discourage innovation, and prevent people from trying new approaches. Just because you haven't figured out how to make something work doesn't mean it's impossible.

Two examples I heard over and over involve the use of vacuum to acquire and hold the ball, and pneumatic cylinders (thats the proper term, the piston is the part inside the cylinder that moves) used to shoot the ball. I read numerous posts that said things like "you can't pick up a ball with vacuum", "the cover is too porous", "you can't develop enough holding force" as well as comments about the impossibility of shooting the ball using pneumatic cylinders.

This year Team 1771 built a robot that everybody on the forum (and some members of the team) said was impossible. It uses a Shop Vac (powered by 2 FP motors) and a large funnel to grab the ball by suction. It then uses a pneumatic cylinder arrangement to shoot the ball. To fire, the vacuum holds the ball against the funnel, and the cylinders are pressurized. When the cylinders develop enough force to break the vacuum (around 300 pounds) the ball flies off with great speed. They were able to achieve more than 6 feet vertically, and over fifteen feet horizontally. Once the bugs were out, they were able to average 5 hurdles per match, and got 7 once (I think, still waiting on video).

Unfortunately, even though they were one of the best scoring bots at the competition, they were eliminated in the semifinals at Peachtree, and their season is done. The biggest disappointment is that the FIRST community will not get the benefit of seeing that not only is an unorthodox approach workable, it can create a top notch robot.

Here is a true story that illustrates what people can do if you don't tell them it's impossible.

A young college student was working hard in an upper-level math course, for fear that he would be unable to pass. On the night before the final, he studied so long that he overslept the morning of the test. When he ran into the classroom several minutes late, he found three equations written on the blackboard. The first two went rather easily, but the third one seemed impossible. He worked frantically on it until, just ten minutes short of the deadline, he found a method that worked, and he finished the problems just as time was called. The student turned in his test paper and left. That evening he received a phone call from his professor. "Do you realize what you did on the test today?" he shouted at the student. "Oh, no," thought the student. I must not have gotten the problems right after all. "You were only supposed to do the first two problems," the professor explained. "That last one was an example of an equation that mathematicians since Einstein have been trying to solve without success. I discussed it with the class before starting the test. And you just solved it!"

http://www.snopes.com/college/homework/unsolvable.asp