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10-30-12, 02:00 PM
http://5601-blogs-nvidia-com.voxcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/zucca-di-halloween1.jpgSome dream of going to space. Others dream of climbing distant mountains. Trey Greer just wants to throw a pumpkin a half mile with a medieval siege weapon. Greer, John Poulton, and Steve Tell, engineers in NVIDIAâ??s Durham, North Carolina office were one of nine teams featured in the Science Channel series â??Road to the Punkin Chunkinâ??â?? in 2011.
Their edge: efficient design. Greer and his team designed their trebuchet using a home-brewed pumpkin-tossing simulator, written in Python programming language, with a little help from course notes on â??constrained rigid body dynamicsâ?? by Carnegie Mellon researchers. Â*The computer-aided design work was then done using Google Sketch Up.
All that science makes Greerâ??s team a serious competitor in the annual World Championship Punkin Chunkinâ?? contest. The eventâ??s competitors show up in Sussex County, Delaware, after Halloween every year wielding everything from air cannons to giant slingshots. In 2010, the team â?? known as â??First In Frightâ?? a play on North Carolinaâ??s state â??First in Flightâ?? motto â?? placed second in the trebuchet category of the competition.
While Greer is planning on entering the Punkin Chunkinâ?? championship this year, his team hasnâ??t substantially updated its design since last year. This year itâ??s all about Treyâ??s sonâ??s team, â??Imperial Pride.â?? Treyâ??s 17-year-old son, Hastings, is about to age out of the junior bracket of the WCPC, and he wants to finish strong. Â*â??Theyâ??ve learned to weld and got 3,000 pounds of steel,â?? Trey says. â??Itâ??s going to be an amazing machine.â??
http://5601-blogs-nvidia-com.voxcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/firstinfright.jpg (http://blogs.nvidia.com/2012/10/inner-geek-inventing-a-better-pumpkin-hurler/firstinfright/)First In Fright: Susan Poulton, NVIDIA engineer John Poulton, NVIDIA engineer Trey Greer, Susan Paulsen, Rose Hoban, and NVIDIA engineer Steve Tell.
Hastings has a knack for the tricky physics involved in translating the energy generated by dropping a 4,500 pound counterweight roughly 500 feet into 300 miles-per-hour in pumpkin velocity, Trey says. Â*It was Hastings who invented the â??snapping linkâ?? mechanism used in First In Frightâ??s trebuchet to amplify the pumpkinâ??s velocity.
Trey figures his sonâ??s team will probably throw further than his team will this year. He even has a camera crew from the Science Channel ready to document Hastingâ??s efforts.
Longer term, Trey is thinking about new ways to push the pumpkin-tossing envelope. â??The machines never throw so far as youâ??d think theyâ??re going to, based on the simulations,â?? he says. The solution: get a better idea of pumpkin aerodynamics. To do that, Greer says heâ??ll need something special. â??Weâ??re planning on building a radar to track them using a satellite dish and some Wi-Fi transceivers,â?? he says.
Greerâ??s motto, courtesy of Dr. Seuss: â??itâ??s fun to have fun but you have to know how.â??
Image: Halloween Pumpkin (http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=24213&picture=halloween-pumpkin) by Daniele Pellati
More... (http://blogs.nvidia.com/2012/10/inner-geek-inventing-a-better-pumpkin-hurler/)
Their edge: efficient design. Greer and his team designed their trebuchet using a home-brewed pumpkin-tossing simulator, written in Python programming language, with a little help from course notes on â??constrained rigid body dynamicsâ?? by Carnegie Mellon researchers. Â*The computer-aided design work was then done using Google Sketch Up.
All that science makes Greerâ??s team a serious competitor in the annual World Championship Punkin Chunkinâ?? contest. The eventâ??s competitors show up in Sussex County, Delaware, after Halloween every year wielding everything from air cannons to giant slingshots. In 2010, the team â?? known as â??First In Frightâ?? a play on North Carolinaâ??s state â??First in Flightâ?? motto â?? placed second in the trebuchet category of the competition.
While Greer is planning on entering the Punkin Chunkinâ?? championship this year, his team hasnâ??t substantially updated its design since last year. This year itâ??s all about Treyâ??s sonâ??s team, â??Imperial Pride.â?? Treyâ??s 17-year-old son, Hastings, is about to age out of the junior bracket of the WCPC, and he wants to finish strong. Â*â??Theyâ??ve learned to weld and got 3,000 pounds of steel,â?? Trey says. â??Itâ??s going to be an amazing machine.â??
http://5601-blogs-nvidia-com.voxcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/firstinfright.jpg (http://blogs.nvidia.com/2012/10/inner-geek-inventing-a-better-pumpkin-hurler/firstinfright/)First In Fright: Susan Poulton, NVIDIA engineer John Poulton, NVIDIA engineer Trey Greer, Susan Paulsen, Rose Hoban, and NVIDIA engineer Steve Tell.
Hastings has a knack for the tricky physics involved in translating the energy generated by dropping a 4,500 pound counterweight roughly 500 feet into 300 miles-per-hour in pumpkin velocity, Trey says. Â*It was Hastings who invented the â??snapping linkâ?? mechanism used in First In Frightâ??s trebuchet to amplify the pumpkinâ??s velocity.
Trey figures his sonâ??s team will probably throw further than his team will this year. He even has a camera crew from the Science Channel ready to document Hastingâ??s efforts.
Longer term, Trey is thinking about new ways to push the pumpkin-tossing envelope. â??The machines never throw so far as youâ??d think theyâ??re going to, based on the simulations,â?? he says. The solution: get a better idea of pumpkin aerodynamics. To do that, Greer says heâ??ll need something special. â??Weâ??re planning on building a radar to track them using a satellite dish and some Wi-Fi transceivers,â?? he says.
Greerâ??s motto, courtesy of Dr. Seuss: â??itâ??s fun to have fun but you have to know how.â??
Image: Halloween Pumpkin (http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=24213&picture=halloween-pumpkin) by Daniele Pellati
More... (http://blogs.nvidia.com/2012/10/inner-geek-inventing-a-better-pumpkin-hurler/)