GEMS

[tevarin]

I volunteered for the GEMS* program this past week, teaching four groups of middle and high-schoolers how to make plaster bars and measure their strength. I was surprised to find that the middle schoolers seemed more enthusiastic and attentive than the high school crowd. Maybe I've been too much biased by outdated personal experience

Comments

[anonymous]

teaching four groups of middle and high-schoolers how to make plaster bars and measure their strength

What kind of strength? Tensile, compressive, or shear?

Did the school make you clean up afterwards? Because I can see how it might be a little messy.

--josh

[tevarin]

*Grin* I could go on for half an hour on the intricacies of strength testing for brittle materials. To sum up, we used a three-point bend test, which means support at the two ends and apply a concentrated load in the middle, like a guy standing on the middle of a log bridge

[anonymous]

Oh! You mean you were testing the strength of the plaster bars.

--josh

[tevarin]

This is what I get for careless use of pronouns:)

We did discuss what might happen if someone stuck a finger in the Charpy impact tester. Fortunately it was a purely theoretical discussion.