WPBD

            At this point in the quarter, all of the students participating in out engineering 103 lab section involving bridge design have been using a specific application provided by the school for the creation of the designs and models.  This application also serves the useful purpose of helping us engineering students learn about judging the different effects and properties of the particular shapes and materials used in a respective design.  Last week we modeled and submitted our own designs, while during class we compared them with our classmates and each group submitted a new one that the students felt represented each group.  As for my teammates, we all agreed we liked the stability of triangles, however more time needs to be dedicated familiarizing ourselves with the different materials and their effects on the design and price, a skill we will all need to acquire.  At least we accomplished to learn about the different factors that apply when designing a bridge.

            To address the question at hand of weather the program currently used for designing a bridge is realistic or not there are more than one factor to the answer this question.  On the one hand, the program is exaggerated with many reactions of the bridge, which can often be considered unrealistic, however it makes sense why they would want the designers of the bridge to understand the risk a t cost and see exactly where they fall wrong with each design.  Additionally, no matter how much designing one does on a computer, it is most probable that nothing truly resembles the real world and its rules   The design matters, very much, nevertheless is not the, only component to a good code and experiment, or work environment for that matter.  Which may or may not affect how realistic this program is seen as, but that depends on the yes that are judging it and their own definition of realistic and unrealistic.

-  Ana M. Franco