Slidos

Question 1

What is the shape of the Burj Al Arab inspired by?

Answer 1

sail of a Dhow (ship used to trade in Indian ocean)

Question 2

What keeps the Burj al Arab hotel stable, considering its built on sand?

Answer 2

skin friction between the support rods and the sand

Question 3

What cause friction?

Answer 3

• jamming of microstructural surface roughness, intermolecular attraction, localized plastic deformation (all of the above)
• physics of friction is poorly understood

Question 4

The dolosse (concrete blocks lining harbor) protect harbors in 2 ways. One is dissipating wave energy within pores formed by their interlocking construction, what is the other?

Answer 4

wedge shapes of the legs increase the degree of interlocking under wave action

Question 5

How did engineers overcome issues of differential thermal expansion in the steel trussing of the hotel?

Answer 5

eccentric “cam” joints

Question 6

In the Burj al Arab hotel, the water fountains used laminar flow, what is roughly the maximum speed of the water jets?

Answer 6

20cm/s

Question 7

What part of a space shuttle is not reusable (like when it gets sent into space while being attached to the boosters)?

Answer 7

the liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen fuel tank

Question 8

How do submarine anechoic tiles work?

Answer 8

air voids in the material change the resonant frequency of the tiles and absorb energy

Question 9

How do water droplets attenuate shock waves generated during the shuttle launch?

Answer 9

the droplets are accelerated and shattered by the flow behind the shock

Question 10

Hammond (narrator of space shuttle video) claims the blunt orbiter nose deflects air around the wings, but even re-entry vehicles without wings are blunt. Why?

Answer 10

the shock/heated layer is pushed away from the vehicle and the air acts as insulation

Question 11

What are the ridges inside the orbiter engines for?

Answer 11

they cover tubes that carry fuel acting as coolant

Question 12

What material is added to the solid propellant in the solid rocket booster’s to increase the temperature of the combustion products and the booster thrust? (ammonium perchlorate, ammonium nitrate, aluminum, iron oxide)?

Answer 12

aluminum

Question 13

The are two possible shapes of propellant in a solid rocket booster, one has a hole in the middle and the other has a hole on the edge. Which one burns faster?

Answer 13

hole in the middle

Question 14

In one part of the video a NASA engineer picked up a space shuttle tile that was heated to a temperature over 1000 degrees celsius? Why wasn’t he burned?

Answer 14

the conductivity of the tiles was so low his fingers cooled the tile

Question 15

When should an engineer declare an apparent conflict of interest?

Answer 15

immediately (even if they aren’t sure)

Question 16

Which of the following best exemplifies a socially responsible practice?

Answer 16

informing employer of the risks to the public at the expense of being unpopular

Question 17

Cheating is…? (rare, easy to detect, widespread, result of unfairness)?

Answer 17

widespread, practically a rate of 100%

Question 18

According to Ariely, what is the mechanism behind cheating?

Answer 18

rationalization, weighing the benefits of cheating vs. the self perception of being a moral/good person

Question 19

What is more damaging to society? (high profile criminals or small scale cheaters)?

Answer 19

small scale cheating done by large portions of the population

Question 20

What factors influence cheating?

Answer 20

observing incidences of cheating, being reminded of morals just before deciding to cheat, extent to which cheating is morally reprehensible/degree it makes you feel immoral (all of the above)

Question 21

Of the 4 ethical theories, which is most commonly used by engineers?

Answer 21

Mill’s utilitarianism

Question 22

According to which of the 4 ethical theories should one select the golden mean between two extremes?

Answer 22

Aristotle’s virtue ethics

Question 23

For which of the 4 ethical theories are good intentions considered more important than results of consequences?

Answer 23

Kant’s formalism

Question 24

According to Mill’s utilitarianism, is slavery ever ethical?

Answer 24

yes

Question 25

According to Kant's formalism, is lying ever morally permissible?

Answer 25

no

Question 26

According to Locke's rights ethics, is it ethical for the state to impose an income tax on its citizens?

Answer 26

yes

Question 27

Is it ethical for the government to enforce seat belts?

Answer 27

yes

Question 28

Is it morally permissible to build a dam that will provide drinking water, flood control, and electricity to a community if it is at the expense of people who live in areas that will be flooded?

Answer 28

no

Question 29

Is it ethical to receive a small cash gift from a contractor with a brief note saying thank you?

Answer 29

no because it could be a bribe

Question 30

Mike is told to falsify a report even though he knows the recommendation is wrong and he can prove that the other direction is better if he is given 2 more weeks. What should he do?

Answer 30

refuse

Question 31

Who has an engineering degree, Tom Scholz (guitarist), Joe Juneau (NHL player), Dolf Lundgren (Swedish actor), Rowan Atkinson (Mr Bean), or all of the above?

Answer 31

all of the above

Question 32

What prevents oil platforms from sinking?

Answer 32

supported on ocean floor, boat hulls, large submersible pontoons (all of the above)

Question 33

What caused accident of the oil platform on Apr 20, 2010?

Answer 33

combustible gas seeped through the well up to drilling platform and exploded, causing fire

Question 34

Why did the blowoff preventer in the oil rig fail to seal the riser pipe?

Answer 34

a length of drill string got into the blowoff preventer, jamming the shears

Question 35

What was the main difficulty in killing the well in the oil rig?

Answer 35

the depth of the well

Question 36

Why were conventional explosives not used in the oil rig, despite a solid probability of success based on Soviet experiments?

Answer 36

failure of explosives would leave no other possibility of stopping the spill, previous experience was using explosives on surface blowouts

Question 37

What was most essential piece of technology in resolving the oil rig crisis?

Answer 37

remote operated vehicles

Question 38

Why did the cofferdam fail in the oil rig?

Answer 38

ice and hydrates clogged the coffer

Question 39

Which of the following techniques involved pumping household junk and drilling mud into the blowout preventer? (top kill, dispersants, top hat, capping stack)?

Answer 39

top kill

Question 40

What is the critical property of junk used in top kill?

Answer 40

mixture of very soft materials and hard materials

Question 41

Why did top-kill fail?

Answer 41

pressure was too high and kept blowing out the junk and drilling mud mixture

Question 42

What was the worst case scenario that could have happened during the Deepwater Disaster?

Answer 42

complete integrity failure of the well leading to leaking from seabed floor, impossible to stop the spill

Question 43

Who was responsible for the oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon?

Answer 43

British Petroleum

Question 44

Should offshore drilling continue?

Answer 44

yes but with more stringent safety measures

Question 45

What main engine feature allows an F1 car to have high performance with such a small engine? (very high engine revolutions, higher cylinder count, use of a turbine, super-fuel)?

Answer 45

very high engine revolutions

Question 46

Who experiences the greatest g-force? (astronaut, F1 driver, fighter pilot)?

Answer 46

fighter pilot pulling up

Question 47

What percentage of the ecosystem services that support life on Earth are being degraded or used unsustainably? (20%, 35%, 60%, 80%)?

Answer 47

60%

Question 48

Increased energy efficiency will lead to what? (reduced or increased energy demand)?

Answer 48

increased energy demand

Question 49

How much does McGill spend on energy annually? (200k, 2mil, 20mil, 200mil)?

Answer 49

20 million

Question 50

What percentage of McGill's energy is from hydro electricity? (20%, 45%, 70%, 95%)?

Answer 50

45%

Question 51

Why was the Millau Bridge made?

Answer 51

reducing tourist traffic jams in Millau

Question 52

What type of bridge is the Millau bridge?

Answer 52

cable-stayed bridge

Question 53

Why does Hammond not get electrocuted by the Tesla coil?

Answer 53

chainmail acts as a Faraday cage

Question 54

What was the limiting design factor making the sliding wedge installation of the span possible?

Answer 54

friction between the wedges

Question 55

What was the biological inspiration for SLIPS? (squid, sea slugs, snails, pitcher plants)?

Answer 55

pitcher plants

Question 56

If you heat a metal and rubber disk each with a hole in it, will the holes get larger, smaller, or stay the same size?

Answer 56

hole in metal gets larger, hole in rubber gets smaller

Question 57

When the metal bed of the bridge heats and expands, the concrete supports must move. How did they increase the flexibility of the concrete?

Answer 57

split the concrete support

Question 58

What is the world's most common building material

Answer 58

concrete

Question 59

How old is the Urnes Stave Church?

Answer 59

860 years

Question 60

What is the world's largest dam, by volume?

Answer 60

Tarbela Dam (Pakistan)

Question 61

What is the fastest train in the world?

Answer 61

TGV in France

Question 62

Where was the tougher low-carbon steel used? (inside or outside of Samurai sword)?

Answer 62

in the centre of the sword

Question 63

What does material toughness mean?

Answer 63

amount of strain absorbed until rupture

Question 64

As the amount of carbon in steel is increased, the steel becomes? (tougher/more flexible or harder/more brittle)

Answer 64

harder and more brittle

Question 65

How is the curve in the Samurai blade formed?

Answer 65

by quenching a hot sword

Question 66

What was the most commonly used weapon, ahead of the Katana?

Answer 66

polearms

Question 67

Which US president was a mining engineer?

Answer 67

Herbert Hoover

Question 68

Who studied mechanical engineering at Cornell?

Answer 68

Bill Nye

Question 69

What university did Malcolm Gladwell graduate from?

Answer 69

UofT

Question 70

If you get in a collision, do you get most injured in an SUV or minivan?

Answer 70

SUV

Question 71

What modification did Chrysler make to the PT Cruiser to make it feel safer

Answer 71

decreasing size of the back window

Question 72

Why do people think they are safer in SUVs?

Answer 72

high driving position, 4-wheel drive, vehicle size (all of the above)

Question 73

By what safety metrics do SUVs fail?

Answer 73

poor structural response during crash, long braking distances, poor handling (all of the above)

Question 74

What is an alternative to a winglet?

Answer 74

raking

Question 75

What is the major drawback of GLARE (glass laminate aluminum reinforced epoxy)?

Answer 75

low specific stiffness

Question 76

What is a common use of a propellant as an inflator?

Answer 76

air bags

Question 77

Why do airliners do away with the coil spring and dashpot systems typical of vehicle suspensions?

Answer 77

much lower system weight

Question 78

Which component was used on the outside of the curved Mongol bow, the buffalo horn or the sinew or both?

Answer 78

the sinew

Question 79

What is a "normal" accident?

Answer 79

accidents caused by interactions of small-scale failures during regular operation

Question 80

What is risk homeostasis?

Answer 80

tendency of people to assume more risk when safety measures are present

Question 81

What was the primary reason for the Challenger explosion?

Answer 81

low temperatures at launch cause SRB O-rings to leak gases

Question 82

What motivated NASA's decision to launch despite assessments of cold O-ring joints being risky?

Answer 82

culture of taking acceptable risks, Thiokol never objected during 40F launches, O-rings had had problems but never caused accidents (all of the above)

Question 83

How does the zinc prevent against the corrosion in the cooling system of the Sydney Opera House?

Answer 83

zinc is oxidized preferentially

Question 84

How was the glass made fracture resistant at the Sydney Opera House? (laminated, tempered, annealed, borosilicate)?

Answer 84

it is laminated

Question 85

For what structures was post-tensioning developed?

Answer 85

bridges

Question 86

How did manufacturers reduce costs when making the irregular shaped sails on Sydney's Opera House?

Answer 86

making them all from the same surface

Question 87

Who performs best at Marshmallow challenge? (lawyers, business school students, CEOS, kindergarteners)? Why?

Answer 87

kindergarteners, they prototype and have diverse skills

Question 88

What is the primary mechanism behind car crash safety features?

Answer 88

reducing effective accelerations induced on the body and internal organs

Question 89

What are the primary injury mechanisms in car crashes?

Answer 89

penetration of oncoming vehicle into passenger compartment, impact of occupants with car interior, impact of internal organs against skeleton (all of the above)

Question 90

What is the peak acceleration that football players experience in worst-case helmet-helmet hits?

Answer 90

175G

Question 91

What's a major issue with typical crash test dummies?

Answer 91

do not have soft tissue, do not model internal organs, accelerometers only measure bulk acceleration (all of the above)

Question 92

What was the largest technical challenge in making the ships bigger?

Answer 92

sloshing of the LNG

Question 93

When are nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and noble gases toxic?

Answer 93

under high-pressure atmospheres