SCI 1030

I BalcomLecture slides 7

What leads to scientific discovery?

Inside the Box• Careful, methodical,

sequential experimentation and study

Outside the Box• Free, open-minded,

creativity.

Richard Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller

• born on July 12, 1895, in Milton, Massachusetts,

• Spending much of his youth on Bear Island, in Penobscot Bay off the coast of Maine

• Struggled in school

• Fuller was sent to Milton Academy, in Massachusetts, and after that, began studying at Harvard.

• He was expelled from Harvard twice: first for spending all his money partying with a vaudeville troupe, and then, after having been readmitted, for his "irresponsibility and lack of interest." By his own appraisal, he was a non-conforming misfit in the fraternity environment

• By age 32, Fuller was bankrupt and jobless, living in public, low-income housing in Chicago, Illinois.

• In 1922, Fuller's young daughter Alexandra died from complications from polio and spinal meningitis.

• Allegedly, he felt responsible and this caused him to become drunk frequently and to contemplate suicide for a while.

• He finally chose to embark on "an experiment, to find what a single individual [could] contribute to changing the world and benefiting all humanity.

Dymaxion House

Dymaxion Car

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlLZE23EJKs&feature=related

Geodesic Dome

Although Fuller was not the original inventor, he developed the intrinsic mathematics of the dome, thereby allowing popularization of the idea — for which he received a U.S. patent in 1954

The geodesic dome appealed to Fuller because it was extremely strong for its weight, its "omnitriangulated" surface provided an inherently stable structure, and because a sphere encloses the greatest volume for the least surface area

•Seagaia Ocean Dome: Miyazaki, Japan, 216 m (710 ft).•Multi-Purpose Arena: Nagoya, Japan, 187 m (614 ft).•Tacoma Dome: Tacoma, WA, USA, 162 m (530 ft).•Superior Dome: Northern Michigan Univ. Marquette, MI, USA, 160 m (525 ft).•Walkup Skydome: Northern Arizona Univ. Flagstaff, AZ, USA, 153 m (502 ft).•Poliedro de Caracas: Caracas, Venezuela, 145 m (475 ft).Designed by Thomas C. Howard of Synergetics, Inc. [32][33][34]

•Round Valley High School Stadium: Springerville-Eagar, AZ, USA, 134 m (440 ft).•Former Spruce Goose Hangar: Long Beach, CA, USA, 126 m (415 ft).•Formosa Plastics Storage Facility: Mai Liao, Taiwan, 123 m (402 ft).•Union Tank Car Maintenance Facility: Baton Rouge, LA USA, 117 m (384 ft), destroyed in November 2007. [35]Designed by Thomas C. Howard of Synergetics, Inc.•Lehigh Portland Cement Storage Facility: Union Bridge, MD USA, 114 m (374 ft).•The Eden Project, Cornwall, United Kingdom[36]

Panoramic view of the geodesic domes at the Eden ProjectOther notable domes include:•Spaceship Earth at Disney World's Epcot Center in Florida, 80.8-meters (265 ft) wide (Spaceship Earth is actually a self supporting geodesic sphere, the only one currently in existence.)•Downtown Vancouver, BC is a geodesic sphere hosting the Telus World of Science, a science centre (formerly called Science World), that was originally the Expo Centre built for Expo 86.•The dome over a shopping center in downtown Ankara, Turkey, 109.7-meter (360 ft) tall•The dome enclosing a civic center in Stockholm, Sweden, 85.3-meter (280 ft) high.•The world’s largest aluminum dome formerly housed the “Spruce Goose” airplane in Long Beach Harbor, California.•The Climatron in the Missouri Botanical Garden built in 1960 was the first geodesic dome greenhouse and the first major architectural use of Plexiglas. Designed by Thomas C. Howard of Synergetics, Inc.

Dymaxion Map

• The Dymaxion Chronofile is Buckminster Fuller's attempt to document his life as completely as possible.

• He created a very large scrapbook in which he documented his life every 15 minutes from 1920 to 1983.

• The scrapbook contains copies of all correspondence, bills, notes, sketches, and clippings from newspapers. The total collection is estimated to be 270 feet (80 m) worth of paper.

• This is said to be the most documented human life in history.

"There is no energy crisis, only a crisis of ignorance."

• Fuller coined to mean "doing more with less“• Buckminster Fuller was one of the first to propagate

a systemic worldview, and he explored principles of energy and material efficiency in the fields of architecture, engineering and design.

• He cited François de Chardenedes' opinion that petroleum, from the standpoint of its replacement cost out of our current energy "budget" (essentially, the net incoming solar flux), had cost nature "over a million dollars" per U.S. gallon (US$300,000 per litre) to produce.

• From this point of view, its use as a transportation fuel by people commuting to work represents a huge net loss compared to their earnings

Fullerene

Buckminsterfullerene

• "It is the roundest and most symmetrical large molecule known to man. Buckministerfullerene continues to astonish with one amazing property after another. Named after American architect R. Buckminister Fuller who designed a geodesic dome with the same fundamental symmetry, C60 is the third major form of pure carbon; graphite and diamond are the other two

Carbon Nanotubes

• Many potential applications have been proposed for carbon nanotubes, – including conductive and high-strength composites; energy

storage and energy conversion devices; sensors; field emission displays and radiation sources; hydrogen storage media; and nanometer-sized semiconductor devices, probes, and interconnects.

– Some of these applications are now realized in products. Others are demonstrated in early to advanced devices, and one, hydrogen storage, is clouded by controversy.

– Nanotube cost, polydispersity in nanotube type, and limitations in processing and assembly methods are important barriers for some applications of single-walled nanotubes

Applications of Buckytubes• Carbon nanotubes have valuable qualities as structural materials. Potential uses include:• Textiles—CNT can make waterproof and/or tear-resistant fabrics• Body armor—MIT is working on combat jackets that use CNT fibers to stop bullets and to monitor the

condition of the wearer.[1] Cambridge University developed the fibres and licensed a company to make them.[2]

• Concrete—CNT in concrete increase its tensile strength, and halt crack propagation.[3]

• Polyethylene—Addint CNT to polyethylene can increase the polymer's elastic modulus by 30%.• Sports equipment—Stronger and lighter tennis rackets, bicycle parts, golf balls, golf clubs, and

baseball bats.• Space elevator—CNT are under investigation as possible components of the tether up which a space

elevator can climb. This requires tensile strengths of more than about 70 GPa.• synthetic muscles: Due to their high contraction/extension ratio given an electric current, CNTs are

ideal for synthetic muscle.[4]

• High tensile strength fibers—Fibers produced with polyvinyl alcohol required 600&nbspJ/g to break.[5] In comparison, the bullet-resistant fiber Kevlar fails at 27–33 J/g.

• Bridges—CNT may be able to replace steel in suspension and other bridges.• Flywheels—The high strength/weight ratio enables very high rotational speeds.• Fire protection—Thin layers of buckypaper can significantly improve fire resistance due to the efficient

reflection of heat by the dense, compact layer of CNT or carbon fibers.[6]