How can I improve the efficiency of my Boomilever design?

[koujidaisuki76]

JC052341-- how do you make your base where the screw hooks to the board? My boomilever is always failure there.

 

[sml4mls]

I would like to preface this statement with saying that I believe the Science Olympiad is a wonderful idea to stimulate and cultivate young interests in the sciences. That having been said; This past weekend my youngest daughter competed in an Olympiad held at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville. Given the perameters of the boomilever competition, she decided on a design that not only relied on tension, but also compression. I must say it was a very elegant design. The rules stated that an attachment plate would need to accommodate two 1/4 holes for 2"x1/4" bolts with washers 20cm's apart. This was critical to her design. Upon arrival to this phase of the competition she is told only one hole would be provided for a bolt. This was instrumental to the failure of her design. Not having an anchor at the abutment caused a catastrophic failure at the lower attachment point. In her design, she used lamination methods throughout the structure making it not only incredibly strong, but incredibly light. Being it held 14.5kg with the handicap, I can only guess what it might have held with the perameters she was given. Bottom line is she is happy,so I am happy. But I know she would have liked to have won. comments from a proud father.

 

[Cheyenne]

hey guys, i don't want to beat anyone from California or New york, i just want to beat my teacher that pretty much stole my plans and built a boomilever with them, for another girl member on the team, and currently has an efficiency score of 888. My highest score as of now is 750, but that's not working! I would REALLY appreciate it if one of yall would help me.

 

[bloomp]

okay I'm working on this for a science olympiad in connecticut

my question is, with your 'scoring' formulas, is it mass supported (grams)/mass of boomilever (grams)? if so, how the hell do you support fifteen kilos with a five gram boomilever? or fifteen gram boomilever?

you must be doing something else, as a single twenty centimeter dowel weighs about ten grams if not more

 

[Cheyenne]

yes, mass held (in grams)/ mass boomilever (in grams). Very simple...OUR DESIGNS ROCK! I don't know how a 5 grams boomilever holds all of the weight (very suspicious if you ask me), but a 15 gram one seems possible. My best score now is just above 888 (haha, i beat that other chick by a couple points), and my boomilever weighs just under 16.9 grams. I am sure that if i lightened my load some, i could get it down to 15 grams...anyways...Its all about design and forethought. What is your best efficiency score (include mass held and weight of your boomilever).

 

[bloomp]

Hmmm well we haven't competed yet (this weekend) but our boomilever is 160 grams

In tests, without all the supports in place and the glue not set completely we got about 5 kilos haha but I'm going to go get pics of it and finish it...

Our base is a little large but I'm planning to pop a lot of holes in it to drop the weight

Thanks!

 

[bloomp]

k so just tested it and it held 6 kilos easy (no visible or audible signs of stress).

I couldn't find my postal scale so idk the exact mass of it. Buy it was 155 before I added some extra supports, then I drilled much of the base out.

Will have pics tomorrow if you're curious/wanna help. We threw a lot of different ideas into this that maybe you'll use idk

 

[Cheyenne]

Hmmm well we haven't competed yet (this weekend) but our boomilever is 160 grams

In tests, without all the supports in place and the glue not set completely we got about 5 kilos haha but I'm going to go get pics of it and finish it...

Our base is a little large but I'm planning to pop a lot of holes in it to drop the weight

Thanks!

HOLY CRAP! 160 grams O.O .. and only 5 kilograms were supported...well, here's your problem: your design sux! - no offense or anything. You are most likely one of those people with no engineering skills whatsoever, and continue to add weight to your boomilever because you think that in the grand scheme of things, that extra weight would have helped.

Well...my team ins't going to nationals, and I am a senior, so ill give you some help.