When we were at VCU one of the first scouts to talk to us told us some incorrect things. She said:
a) Plexiglas wasn’t legal, only Lexan
b) bungee cords weren’t legal, only surgical tubing
Clearly these are wrong. (Yes, I checked it, Plexiglas and bungee cords are never mentioned and lexan is only mentioned in an example of replacement parts) The fact that this scout went around saying this (I assume, I have no facts to base an assumption that she said it to others on) unnerved me quite a bit. I was debating whether to tell her she was wrong, which I decided to do, but didn’t because we were busy. (AKA catastrophic failures) This brings me to my point, all team members (esp scouts) should read this year’s rules, doubly so if they’re going to tell people this sort of thing. Now, some of our mentors thought she was trying to sabotage us, which I highly doubt. I have seen no evidence that any FIRST member would deliberately sabotage another team’s robot. Anyway, this reminded me of a senior on our team, at the beginning of the year he always talks about beryllium (I think this is the right element) and banned materials. This was true a few years ago, but not anymore. (although since Be is dangerous it still wouldn’t be allowed, maybe allowed alloyed but no straight up) So, my theory is she read an old rule (although I still don’t think Plexiglas was ever banned) and misinterpreted it, and this year she didn’t update her “mental rulebook.” So, here is my point, finally, (I know I drift a lot in my posts) READ THIS YEAR’S RULES, DON’T ASSUME NOTHINGS CHANGED.
Even if plexiglass isn’t expressly listed as illegal it should be. It shatters in failure which is a hazardous failure method. Lexan/polycarbonate doesn’t have this issue. This is why most machine guarding is made of lexan and we don’t allow plexiglass in the facility where I work.
one of the biggest secrets of engineering: YOU dont have to know everything
all you need to know is where to look it up!
The Gracious part of GP is expecting that people will make mistakes from time to time, even professionals make mistakes. Thats when you need to be gracious and not get upset about it.
The scout mostly likely was trying to be helpfull, but was simply miss-informed.
It’s amazing how many products have lost their brand and now become generic names… At any rate, the rulebook is always good reading material, pretty much a NYT Bestseller every year!
That is sooooo true. A lot of people tend to forget that (even though we work on robots) we are not robots. People make mistakes, it happens, deal with it. I think this scout’s mistake pales in comparision to, say, the mistakes that led to the loss of the Mars Orbiter (due to engineers using different units). I think she can be forgiven.
Gracious Professionalism is an imperitive aspect of this competition. And the ability to maintain GP towards you teammates thoughout the stressful build season and during the chaos that is competition is a true talent. It seems like during these times GP is sometimes pushed aside in favor of less amiable ways of communicating.
While I do agree that people need to read the rules, and know them fairly well, it isn’t necessary to be able to recite them word for word from heart. And Gracious Professionalism should not be sacrificied in order to “prove you are right”. Don’t let pride or ego diminish Gracious Professionalism.
Stupid fact: Nylon was GE plastics trade name that was generisized. The actual chemical name is polyamid. Lexan is a GE Plastics trade name. The appropriate way to use the name would be Lexan Polycarbonate.
Stupid fact 2: Themros Inc was devasted by the trade name Thermos being generisized as a term for a vacuum bottle.
