The Thing with the Flyers...

Sometimes I walk without really seeing. I trek from class to class with my eyes closed (figuratively), always talking to a friend, listening to my iPod, or—my personal favorite—simply zoning out. Many times, I find I don’t have time to slow down and really look at things; this fast-paced lifestyle is something I have always wanted to change.

So when I read about this week’s Bioengineering assignment, I was most excited for the actual search for a structure. A chance to wander around and explore new parts of campus sounded like a nice change of pace, as far as homework assignments go. I set aside a block of time for my search; camera in hand, I headed down Locust Walk with a mission. As I stopped to examine different structures, I almost felt a bit out of place. Most people were hurrying from one place to another (normally, I would fall in that category!), but there I was, simply standing and staring.

I eventually decided on a structure and snapped a few pictures. What to name my structure presented a bit of a challenge, but after asking the advice of a few suitemates, I decided on the “Circular Bulletin Board.” The name expresses the function: the “circular bulletin board” is a giant cylinder with flyers and notices plastered along its sides. Long, vertical strips of wood form the exterior, but most of the wood is hidden from view the overlapping papers.

The size of the circular bulletin board can be examined in several different ways. The first method that comes to mind is a measurement of meters, either through circumference or volume. The radius of the structure is about .4 meters, and the height is 1.8 meters, so the circumference and volume of the cylinder-shaped structure can easily be calculated through the formulas C=2πr (2.5 meters) and V=πr^2 h (.9 square meters). The volume probably isn’t as useful a value as the circumference—circumference is easier to understand and visualize, at least for me. The cylindrical shape of the bulletin board reminds me of a water bottle. Although the two are completely different sizes, they share several characteristics, such as a direct correlation between shape and function. While the bulletin board’s figure allows maximum advertisement of its flyers (people can see them from every direction, unlike a normal, flat board), a water bottle’s shape holds water. For both objects, the cylindrical shape best suits the function: can you imagine drinking water from a triangularly shaped glass?

Totaling the number of wooden boards is second way to describe size. There are a total of fifty boards, each 5 centimeters in diameter. Multiplying the number of boards by the width of each gives the circumference again, this time with a smaller unit (250 centimeters). Looking at the structure’s individual pieces may generate the same number, but I began to see the structure in a different way: instead of one large cylinder, I saw long, rectangular boards. Strangely enough, these wooden strips reminded me of popsicle sticks. Back in the day of arts and crafts, I would painstakingly glue popsicle sticks around a little cup, forming a pencil holder. The popsicle sticks alone were nothing more than little strips of wood, but once I glued them together, I had something. The same rules apply to the bulletin board: each piece of wood is useless by itself, but when they are all connected, a structure is formed.

My third way of examining the size of the bulletin board is a bit more abstract and a lot less reliable. I counted the number of papers on the cylinder: fifty-eight, if I didn’t miss any. Assuming that each sheet is 8.5 by 11 inches, the surface area covered by sheets is 5423 square inches. I then guessed that flyers cover three-fourths of the cylinder. That being said, the total surface area of the cylinder ends up being roughly 7230 square inches. If I do the actual calculations, using the formula for surface area of a cylinder, I see that the real surface area is 7200 square inches. Calculating the surface area from the flyers, rather than the shape of the whole, offers an interesting perspective. I can see how “efficient” the structure is; only a certain percentage of the cylinder actually performs its function of holding papers. Looking at the dirty, run-down flyers strangely reminds me of the walls of an art museum. Like the bulletin board, an art museum has a specific function: to display something. However, every inch of the wall cannot be covered with paintings; people cannot concentrate on such an overwhelming amount of material. Although filling the entire wall of an art museum, or the whole side of a bulletin board, theoretically creates 100% space efficiency, the numbers are misleading; they do not include the “human factor.” People cannot process so many different flyers or paintings at once. In this case, less is more.

Searching for a structure gave me a reason to really look at things. What is this made of? How does it work? Is it useful? Such basic questions don’t always have straightforward answers. I learned to approach a structure in many different ways: I examined different length scales, functions, and comparisons, for each factor builds a larger understanding of the structure as a whole. Such an approach can be used for many engineering problems. Just as I observed the cylinder over several different size scales, I should consider many angles of a problem. I should also never forget to really see; there’s a lot of “circular bulletin boards” out there, waiting to be noticed.