The Royal Mail Steamship Titanic

Introduction

The Royal Mail Steamship Titanic was a British transatlantic ship which was the biggest ship in the world at the time it  sank in the North Atlantic Ocean. It was one of the three transatlantic ships that make up  the Olympic class, produced by White Star Line, and constructed between 1909 and 1912 in Belfast´s shipyard.

Investigation

Throughout the twentieth century there were a lot of expeditions to find the missing ship, although all of them were unsuccessful. Finally, the remains of the tragically destroyed ship were discovered the first of September in 1985. It was found 3.821 m deep in the sea and 675 km from Terranova.

 

Since the ship sank until 1996, it was believed that the Titanic crashed with an iceberg which made a 90 feet fissure in the ship´s hull. However, in 1996, Robert Ballard discovered that the plates of the hull were distorted and displaced, but not cut to length. The real situation was that the collision with the iceberg did not make a hole in the hull, but it broke the rivets that join the plates and this allowed the water to get into the ship.

The new discovery and its subsequent analysis performed by United States investigators, revealed that the rivets used in the bow´s hull were of poor quality. They were made of iron instead of steel, like in the rest of the ship. That might have happened because of the inability of suppliers to meet the deadlines and quantities required by the manufacturer.

 Conclusion

The tragedy cost 1512 lives due to drowning or hypothermia, and that makes this shipwreck one of the worst maritime catastrophes in peace times in the history of the world.

CIVIL ENGINEERING

Introduction:

Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment.

History:

It is the oldest engineering discipline after military engineering and it was defined to distinguish non-military engineering from military engineering. Civil engineering is the application of physical and scientific principles and its history is intricately linked to advances in understanding of physics and mathematics throughout history. Because civil engineering is a wide-ranging profession, including several separate specialized subdisciplines, its history is connected to the knowledge of structures, materials science, geography, geology, soils, hydrology, environment, mechanics and other fields.

Production:

Civil engineers design and build tall structures and large buildings such as multi-storey car parks, train stations, bridges, roads, railways, tunnels and even stadiums.

Important Issues:

There is a variety of issues that civil engineers have to face in their working lives.

• Sustainability: Use of sustainable materials, reducing the energy needs of a building through the use of solar panels and low energy lighting, and super insulation are all tools  civil engineers will use to ensure the sustainability of any project they undertake.
• Funding: When infrastructure is properly financed, planned, and prioritized the economic and social benefits always outweigh the initial costs.
• Planning: This is dependent upon securing a planning system which can enable major infrastructure projects fairly efficiently and expertly.

Conclusion:

Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that is not only about creation, design, construction and maintenance, but also about improvement and protection of the environment in which we live.

References:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_engineering

http://www.ice.org.uk/About-civil-engineering

THE CHEWING GUM

Introduction
Chewing gum is a sweetened product composed primarily of latex, which can be natural or synthetic. On the one hand, organic latex is arubbery polymer obtained from the sap of the Manilkarazapota, a type of tree. On the other hand, synthetic latex is a component produced by neutral plastic or polyvinyl acetate base.

Process
The natural or artificial base is grounded into coarse meal and mixed to obtain a uniform consistency. The blend is then settled into a warm room to dry for two days.

Cooking and purifying the base
After two days, the base is cooked in kettles at 116 degrees Celsius, to form thick syrup. To purify it, the product is passed through screens and placed in a high speed centrifuge until it is refined through finer screens.

Blending additional ingredients
When the previous step is completed, the base gum is taken to the kettles to get cooked with other ingredients that are stirred in by large steel blades. These components are extremely fine powdered sugar, corn syrup, flavoring and softeners.  After the composition gets smooth enough, it is rolled through bands and cooled with fresh air.

Kneading and rolling the gum
In the next step, the mass is kneaded for several hours by the machines that gently pummel the gum. When this process is finished, the mass is dusted with powdered sugar, scored into a pattern of rectangles, seasoned and broken into sticks. Now, finally, the gum is ready to be packaged and shipped to retail outlets.

The remote-controlled Car

 Introduction

            This report is intended to give a brief summary of the history of the remote-controlled car, including some milestones in its evolution. All the information was collected from the internet.


Car modeling and its categories

Car modeling is the design and management of model cars with four wheels that move bythemselves and arecontrolled by a human being from a distance by radiowaves. Actually, there are two categories, the ones made as toys for children, and the ones designed to run at more than 130 km/h, used for competitions. Both types of designs are quite similar, but racing cars are built to a scale of 1/8 and their weight is over 2.5 kg. Moreover, their propulsion can be by liquid fuel or electricity.
          

History of the design

The design of remote-controlled cars began sometime after the Second World War. It used digital proportional radio control systems and methanol engines, developed in aeromodelling, but specialized by adding a good response to all engine speeds, improved cooling and noise control. In 1980 the first remote-controlled on-road car appeared. Two years later, it was replaced by the electric model that has nickel-cadmium (Ni-Cd) batteries, and speed control. In 1985 technology brought new gasoline engines and, in 2000, the Ni-Cd batteries of electric cars become replaced by the nickel-metal hydride battery (NiMH).

Advances in motors, wheels and accessories have been constant. Nowadays, the fastest remote-controlled car on the planet is called Schumacher Mi3. It can reach a top speed of 161.76 mph and it was designed by Nic Case.


Conclusion
          
 In conclusion, the design of remote-controlled cars has grown a lot through the years. Today’s model cars are much faster than the first ones.