On Monday the 29th, our group traveled to the Deutsches Museum. This is one of the largest museums in Europe, so there were a lot of exhibits, but two of the exhibits that stuck out to me were the reinforced concrete portion of our guided tour, and the atomic physics section.
During the guided tour, Alex the tour guide took us past one of the oldest structures made from reinforced concrete found in Germany, which happened to be a dog house pictured above. Even though I am not a civil engineer, a lot of my close friends are, so I frequently hear about their concrete escapades that they go on for class. I more or less found this structure interesting because people were able to figure out how to use the strengths of two materials to cover for the weaknesses of each other. I also completely didn't know how large the carbon footprint for concrete actually was. I always assumed that it was the environmentally friendly choice, but I failed to consider how much sand is needed for the process and how much carbon is released when making concrete. In the future, I hope we are able to find more environmentally friendly ways to use this technology.
After our guided tour we had time to ourselves. One of the exhibits I went to was the atomic physics section of the museum. This portion of the museum tied in nicely with a part of our guided tour where we talked heavily about particles and how, in an excited state, they can be used in the advancement in technology. Additionally, the video above shows one interactive part of the exhibit, describing how Rutherford conducted his gold-foil experiment to discover the atomic nucleus with a hands-on approach that can be easily understood. I really enjoyed how these exibits contained such powerful information but made it easy to understand for people that aren't in that particular field.
Kaitlynn, I found the dog house very interesting alongside the discussion of concrete and its CO2 footprint and how combining it with steel solves much of its strength issues. I also enjoyed Alex's joke about my "small dogs" and how lively he made the tour
ReplyDeleteI was also very surprised to learn about how big the carbon footprint produced during the creation of concrete was. I like your line of thinking for finding a way that is better for the environment. We could possibly change the production process or find a suitable replacement for concrete altogether. (That would be a good thing to ask a materials engineer about). Thank you for including a video to help explain the gold-foil experiment.
ReplyDeleteI was also astonished by the level of total carbon emissions CO2 concrete production is responsible for. While I had heard about it as there is a ready-mix facility near me who presented at our school before, I had no idea about the monumental 10% figure. Alex was out there both bringing good vibes for the future and dropping knowledge bombs like that and destroying our hopes and dreams (but in a good way?)
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