Catapult Errors

They support their claim by first explaining “Many scientists spent years working together to solve the problem. They drew and discussed different designs until they agreed on the ones that were the best. Then, they built small models of those designs, and tested and tested them until they felt ready to build even bigger models.” They tell how the scientists work together

These consequences can lead to monumental fiascoes. One such fiasco took place in the mining town of Pitcher, Oklahoma in 1950. A mining engineer warned the miners that their town could cave in at any moment from excessive excavating. He suggested immediate evacuation of the town. The leading citizens of the town held a meeting and mocked the engineers’ warning. A few days later, the disaster hit, taking the lives of those who refused to leave. They followed the poor decision made by the leading citizens of the town. All seven symptoms were present in the 1950 mining disaster. A second example of groupthink would be the events surrounding the space shuttle Challenger, the product of flawed decisions. The evidence was inadvisable to launch the space shuttle at the earliest opportunity. NASA’s perspective was that is was undesirable to delay the launch because of the impact it would have on political and public support for the program. Authorities dismissed potentially lethal hazards as only acceptable risks because of NASA’s engineer’s pressure to launch. The decision to launch the shuttle amounted to a much greater loss than the loss of political and public support. A third example of groupthink involves the group around Admiral HE Kimmel, which failed to prepare for the possibility of a Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor despite repeated warnings. Informed by his intelligence chief that radio contact with Japanese aircraft carriers

Our group had met several times before deciding on a final design and date to accomplish our Rube Goldberg Machine. We had each agreed to meet at 7:30pm on a Thursday evening, which worked best for the entire group. Two members had to work late, but we were still committed to making the time originally proposed. However, that night as our team began to arrive, we found it difficult to contact our final group member. He was in charge of bringing string, which was crucial to the development of our machine. Instead of getting frustrated, angry, or acting irrationally, the remaining four members began assembling the pieces of our project that did not require rope. At the time, it did not seem to make much difference, but reflecting back we realized how much time was saved by problem solving immediately, as opposed to waiting patiently on the final group member to begin our assembly process. By 8:30pm he had arrived, and we could start working on the remainder of our assignment. By this point, we had made a water funnel, arranged our domino pieces, and taped any pieces of equipment together that made sense for the final product of our machine.

Select one (1) project from the working or educational environment of your choice and specify the variation nature of the project in question. Next, propose the overall manner in which you would apply statistical thinking strategy to improve the end result of the selected project. Provide a rationale to support your response.

The pill bugs lab was done to solve the problem of which type of food the pill bugs preferred, cucumber of pepperoni. My hypothesis was that the pill bugs will favor cucumber over pepperoni. In order to carry out this experiment, we used the chamber method to determine which food was favored by the pill bugs. Pieces of cucumber and pepperoni were placed on each end. Then five pill bugs were placed in each chamber, and their movement was observed and recorded. Because the results were so close to each other, we concluded that their reaction to the stimulus was a kinesis reaction, and it is only random. My hypothesis was not true because the standard error from the number of pill bugs in cucumber chamber and pepperoni chamber overlapped. This means that there is no scientific reason for why the pill bugs chose cucumber over pepperoni. I learned many new things in this experiment, such as, how to use a choice chamber, and how to calculate the standard deviation and error of the data. Also, I learned how pill bugs react to an outside threat.

Staring at the map and planning his next course of action, Nightburn had called a meeting of all his high-ranking officers, Sir Faine, Lady Sara, General Zhousbek, Ject, Ace, his assassination squad and personal bodyguards. His officers trailed into the room over the next few minutes with a group gathered near the door engaged in idle conversation, but all grew quiet when Nightburn directed his question to Ject. “Is everyone here?”

Candidate Smith only briefed what she was briefed by the instructor, completely failing to brief either admin and logistics or command and signal. Candidate Smith then brought her candidates on the objective, where the three who were not on security stared at the objective and suggested ways to traverse it. At no point was a coherent plan to complete the mission proposed. Candidate Smith immediately sought the advice of her fellow candidates without proposing an initial plan or creating guidelines of any kind. Candidate Smith was the tallest candidate in her fire team, but she delegated reaching the beam to shorter candidates, a misuse of the physical attributes she had at her disposal. Candidate Smith also failed to notice that one side of the obstacle had more clearance to utilize the rope than the other until nine minutes had already passed. Failing to take into account basic mission limitations was a trend, as Candidate Smith also did not account for the use of the rope, or how many candidates would be required to move the 55 gallon drum. Ultimately, no candidate traversed the obstacle, the first step to solving this

Primarily I learned that when doing similar projects it is important for me to derive several designs or solutions to a problem in order to choose the best one. I think this was one of the factors that greatly attributed to the project as the group was able to choose the optimal possible design for the particular project. This is certainly a strategy to utilize in the future.

During construction, there were several inappropriate risks taken. For example, time was not invested into accurately drawing engineering plans that accommodated the King’s requests to increase the size of the keel and number of guns. Additionally, when the principal

Once the exercise was over and as the individual points were displayed a lot of things became clearer. Having experienced the system and then debriefing later on, helped in filling a lot of gaps in information that seemed to exist during the simulation. With a better understanding of ‘the rules of the game’ and some of the strategies that did work, it is difficult to introspect now without a bias. As the saying goes – “Hindsight is wonderful. It's always very easy to second guess after the fact. “– Helen Reddy

The project had regular meetings with the team members. These meetings were used to evaluate the progress of the project. At these meetings we evaluated the project. We also discussed how to proceed in order to plan our upcoming activities.

When we think of catapults we usually imagine them firing at castle walls during the medieval times, or standing in the background of a large army clashing with another in an action movie. However, catapults have a long and intricate history that twists and binds with our own, dating all the way back to 399 B.C. First documented by the Greek historian, Diodorus Siculus, in the form of an early design for the Ballista (type of catapult). Catapults were a staple for siege warfare all throughout history. The catapult was used by many different cultures, notably the Greeks, Roman, and Chinese in siege warfare; also

According to Luth (2000) there were many opportunities throughout the construction and design phase for the design flaw to be recognized by the engineers and there should have been a better review system in place as the changes that were made were not properly reviewed by a structural engineer. This disaster could have been avoided if someone would have taken the time to make sure all the designs were safe and would work

If given the opportunity to re-do the simulation, our top priorities would be to manage the allotted time more efficiently in order to improve decision quality, provide resolution certitude and ensure that each team member is adequately informed and prepared prior to meeting. During the simulation, we were given a finite timeline in which to analyze and input decisions; however, we failed to create a sense of urgency within our group, which encumbered the decision-making process and consequently, led to rushed decisions as time ran out. A team member should have been appointed as a designated timekeeper for time monitoring purposes.

All the techniques assisted in following the decision making steps including measuring the impact which is easily forgotten. It is very important to ensure our decision was effective and if it was not. Understanding why the decision was not effective and re evaluating the alternatives and the issues that come into play will help us identify what was missed or overlooked so the problem can get fixed. This also helps ensure the same mistakes are minimized, if not identified so the same issues do not reoccur and something can be learned for the future.