Welding 101 for Hobbyists (and Nerds!)
All the basics I wish someone would have told me when I got started welding.
Read MoreWhat's that Infrastructure? - Subsurface Utilities (Episode 4)
When you run a new utility line, whether it be electrical, gas, water, sewer, or communications, you basically have two choices for where to put it: overhead strung across poles, or below the ground. Today we’re talking about that second one, subsurface utilities. What’s that Infrastructure is a series where we divulge and discover the manmade world around us, and below us too.
Always call 811 before you dig (or the equivalent outside the US).
Rivers on Mars (and Other Uses for Hydraulic River Models)
In this video, we’re talking about computational hydraulic river modeling. HEC-RAS is ubiquitous in the industry, and many H&H engineers in the U.S. use it regularly for various applications including floodplain mapping, reservoir simulations, breach analysis of dams, and even fluvial geomorphology.
Read MoreWhat's that Infrastructure? - Hydraulic Structures (Episode 3)
The damage and destruction caused by Hurricane Matthew this month has got flooding on my mind. Water is one our most basic needs, but it also can be our worst enemy. You may know that managing water is one of the most important aspects of civil engineering, so today we’re talking about hydraulic structures.
Read MorePractical Engineering featured on Engineering Commons Podcast
Check out my interview on the Engineering Commons Podcast.
Read MoreTechnical Illustration of Desktop Watt Balance
Frequently Asked Questions about the Watt Balance Illustration
Read MoreRedefining the Kilogram - Desktop Watt Balance
Measurements are so important to us, they have their own specific branch of science: metrology. And metrologists have come up with a pretty clever way of redefining the kilogram.
Read MoreMagnetic Flow Meter
We all know that magnets are pretty much voodoo: invisible forces acting on the real world in unknown and unexpected ways. But engineers have developed a number of methods to harness that magic to perform useful and beneficial tasks, including answer that age old question: How do you measure the flow of a liquid in a pipe?
Read MoreWhat's That Infrastructure: Transportation (Episode 1)
This is the first episode of a new series I started where I talk about miscellaneous pieces of infrastructure, including viewer-submitted photos. Click the WTI link at the top of the page if you'd like to submit your own photo!
Sphere Earth
Don't let anyone try to convince you that the earth is a sphere! It's actually closer to an ellipsoid. How does your airline pilot know which direction to head when he’s over the ocean with no landmarks? How do we know the exact boundaries between parcels of land and between states and countries?
Read MoreWater Barometer and Other Experiments in Hydrostatics
Engineers that work with fluids need a solid understanding of how they behave. There’s one branch of fluid mechanics that plays a role in areas all across our lives, yet it's not always so intuitive.
Read MoreArtificial Meteor Showers and Re-Entry Engineering
A Japanese company plans to create an artificial meteor shower for the opening ceremony of the 2020 summer Olympics in Tokyo. What engineering challenges will they face in creating these synthetic cygnids?
Read MoreMechanically Stabilized Earth
Dirt is probably the cheapest and simplest construction material out there, but it's not very strong compared to other choices. Luckily geotechnical engineers have developed a way to strengthen earthen materials with almost no additional effort - Mechanically Stabilized Earth (aka MSE or Reinforced Soil). If you look closely, you'll see MSE walls are everywhere.
Read MoreWhy do Baseball Bats Break
In 2009, the an MLB committee determined that the increase in the use of maple baseball bats (over the traditional ash bats) was a primary reason for the rise in bats breaking during games. But why?
Read MoreYoyo Despin for Spacecraft
You may have seen the yo-yo trick called "Around the World", but you probably didn’t know that spacecraft that actually do go around the world have their own yo-yo trick.
Read MoreThe 100-Year Flood Is Not What You Think It Is
How do engineers combine statistical hydrology and societal risk tolerance (two of my favorite topics) to characterize flooding?
Read MoreTuned Mass Dampers in Skyscrapers
In many of the world’s tallest skyscrapers, there’s a secret device protecting the building and the people inside from strong motion due to wind and earthquakes. Did you know you can tune a skyscraper just like a guitar?
Read MoreArduino Garden Controller
Gardening in the modern age means making things more complicated and arduous, with electrons, bits, and bytes. Behold: the garduino.
Read MoreGroundwater Flow Model
I was commissioned to build this model in support of a presentation about geotechnical engineering. The goal is to illustrate the flow paths that groundwater takes under an obstruction (e.g. a sheet pile or cutoff wall).
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