Pole vaulting - physics, material science, miracle

One of my students in chemistry recently picked up my copy of Materials in Sports Equipment (vol 1) by Jenkins (speaking of which, three questions...one, does anybody know if a Vol 2 ever came out? And did you know an updated edition just came out in May 2019? Does anybody know how different the updated version is?)

He skimmed the first few pages and came to me with questions about the energy transfer in pole vaulting. That sent me looking for videos about the energy transfer in - and the material science of - pole vaulting.

The first video I found - the above one - goes through the energy transfers spectacularly, explaining via stick figure drawings just how the energy changes forms in the course of the run up and eventual vault itself.

That, then, sent me looking some more for videos about the materials of the vault pole.




I couldn't find a corny joke either at the beginning or end of the How It's Made video, so that was a little disappointing. But I did notice that some of the How It's Made footage was in the LSU video up top.



...but I will say the production value on the "How It's Made" video is higher than this less fancy video showing how Gill makes pole vaults.



Then I started to go further down the rabbit hole and found just how steam is involved in the production of vault poles, something that clearly the American Boiler Manufacturer Association must care about deeply.

And I'm really curious about the Essx pole video which seems to show some materials above and beyond fiberglass - possibly carbon fiber and what seems to look like saran wrap (?). I kind of wish their video wasn't entirely wordless.




...and because I figure somebody came here to see this, I'll include a compilation of pole vault breaks. Heads up, though, that nobody in this video gets seriously injured.

How It's made - Aluminum cans

The top comment on the video (at least when I checked in on it) said the following "I watched this whole video to see how the pull tabs were assembled on the top of the can–sincerely disappointed."

So, I'll warn you in advance that this video stops with the cans assembled - except for the top of the can being attached, something that happens after the can is filled with liquid. If that means you don't want to watch the video, move along.

The main reason I watched the video was to find out how the polymer liner is put into the can. Thankfully, that part was included - the polymer liner is sprayed in as a 'varnish' (but take that with a grain of salt because the whole video uses British language such as aluminIum) at about 3:40.

How It's Made Opalescent Glass (and more Kokomo)

I visited Kokomo Opalescent Glass a few years back, driving to Indianapolis and a half hour north, and paying my five dollars (it's now up to six dollars per person) to take the tour.

I'm pretty darn sure that the above video is from Kokomo's factory, because the videos that Kokomo posted look identical to the one above.






If ever you want to thank your friendly, neighborhood blogger for all the work that he does, might I recommend either a cast or a water jet cut, red Indiana?

How It's Made - Patterned Glass Panels

Yeah, I'm on a glass trend lately. See, I search videos in big bunches and write them up, scheduling them out over weeks and even months. No surprise there, that the videos tend to have themes.

I wouldn't have guessed that there would that much maintenance on the rollers. I just assumed that the molten glass wouldn't have done much damage to the rollers, but I guess it does.

How It's Made Computer Recyling Gold

I'm actually a little surprised to see this type of recycling happening in what looks like a European country. Admittedly, the video seemingly does what it can to avoid showing us anything to
distinguish what country this recycling is happening in - no writing on much other than the forklift, no spoken language - at best it looks like it might be a Northern European country. Everything I'd heard was that this mostly took place only in countries with far less strict environmental and worker safety regulations.

I love that they're using aqua regia to dissolve the gold.

Then we get some outstanding electrochemistry going on with electrochemical reduction growing copper then silver then gold crystals. Phenomenal stuff (mostly in animation, admittedly).

Trigger warning - 4:15 - Corny joke relating fish and chips to computer chips.

How a Hockey Puck is Made

Corny joke at...wait, where's the corny joke?

I don't know that I can ever trust How It's Made again if they're not going to include their signature corny joke in the segment.

"Certain minerals" (at 0:38) is way too vague for me. I want to know which minerals.

That 'carbon black filler' (at 1:11) looks dangerously powdery. I hope the workers are wearing correct PPE.

I am consistently amazed at how much of the manufacturing process is done by hand.

How It's Made - 1372 Ultra Thin Glass

Standard materials such as lime, sand, soda, and pot ash...plus "smaller, secret ingredients...[to] enhance optical clarity and electrical conductivity"

There's a lot that's not being said there in those quotes.

The real payoff of this video is - to me, anyway - the thin, sagging ribbon of glass at 2:49 through 2:58 then the rolled-up glass at 3:25.

That's stunning.

Athletics Engineered: Hockey sticks, a material issue

So, Professor Daehn, we meet again.

Admittedly, that three-point bend tester at 2:40 isn't exactly the death laser from Goldfinger, but it would probably sting a bit.

Here we get to see one aspect of the overlap between the world of athletics and the materials engineering department at Ohio State University, showing us some of the work that students get to do in the program.

Admittedly, I was looking for a bit more of how hockey sticks are made, either the old-school, wooden ones...



...or the more modern, graphite reinforced kind...

And you're welcome for the 'you'll want to stick around for this one' from that second video.

The ingeneous design of the aluminum beverage can

Holy crap is the aluminum can complicated.

Maybe I should stop throwing them into the back of m'pick up truck and just letting them blow away into the coutryside.

Seriously, though, the aluminum can is - as are so many of our modern technologies - an absolute marvel of engineering. The number of steps involved in turning a 0.3"-thick aluminum disk into the finished can is stunning. Also stunning, by the way, are the examples that The Engineering Guy has along every step of the process. I'm desperately curious - and more than a little envious - as to how he got his hands on all of those.

After the jump I'll include all the videos he references at the end of the above video.

How It's Made Aluminum

And so goes the glory of Napoleon's really fancy knives and forks...

This video, from the How It's Made series, shows the process necessary to purify bauxite ore into useful, 'finished' aluminum.

Sadly, though, it is bereft of the corny joke that usually comes at the beginning of the How It's Made videos. I kind of miss the joke. Does that mean I've got Stockholm syndrome at this point?

How It's Made Giant Tires

Where's the corny joke at the beginning?

I'm glad to see that some recycled tire rubber is used in this production. It's interesting to hear the mixture ingredients that go into the rubber - sulfur, carbon black, rubber, antioxidants, and apparently the bags that the carbon black and sulfur come in.

All of the by-hand working in the making of the tire makes me understand why it's so expensive. This one's a pretty impressive process. I think I counted about three thousand layers of rubber in the tire.

Sheesh...

And the transformation in the end - via steam-filled bladder - is just stunning.

Oh, there's the corny joke...at the end this time.

Ice Axes - How it's Made

I was almost a little disappointed that there wasn't a corny joke at the beginning of this video, and then I found out that ice axes are "really designed for peak performance."

I really wonder if as much of this manufacturing process is down by hand as is being shown here.

How It's Made Swords

"...and they go to the hilt to make sure the details are just right."

Seriously?

Ok, if all they're doing is making replica swords, I can see that just cutting it out of a block of metal would be faster, but it can't have nearly the same strength and flexibility that a real sword would.

I'm thinking most of this sword making procedure isn't quite historically accurate, but I will admit that most of my knowledge of sword making comes from Highlander.

How It's Made Steel Forgings

The jokes just never stop coming from How It's Made. Their opening jokes are as corny as Kansas in August.

Our Tuscaloosa camp got to see an electric arc furnace at work at Nucor Steel. If ever you get the chance, do not miss seeing one of those at work. They're stunning and absolutely awesome.

The glowing blocks at 2:45 would be amazing to see in person, as would the forging press at 3:00. Wow...

How It's Made - Fiber Cement Siding

I can say that I am a homeowner of a home covered in fiber cement board, specifically HardiePanels.

At 1:03 the video says that water is pumped into the pulverized sand to 'liquify' the sand. Really? In my head, liquify means melting. The sand clearly isn't melting, but it is coming together into a slurry. Is the word liquify being used correctly there?

Production of the cement fiber boards here are conceptually simple - sand, cement, wood fiber, water - but impressively complex in processing, particularly the use of pressurized steam to speed up the cement curing process.

How It's Made Hammers

"No one-hit wonder"...funny stuff here...

I love the simplicity - in general appearance, anyway - of forging...and the fire that flares from the oil quenching at 2:20...

Ok, in reality, these look like really nice hammers, especially the ones with the resin-dipped leather handles.

"They've really nailed it"...still funny...

Anybody know who writes these How It's Made scripts?

Al 3anany Science Cement.flv

Wait, wait, wait - from 3:00 - "the powder goes into a preheater. The temperature of the powder is eighty degrees Celsius upon entering. Within forty seconds, it gets more than ten times hotter."

That's problematic to this old chemistry teacher. Does that mean it's up to 800 C (80 C x 10)? or 3530 K (353 K x 10)? If I've learned nothing else from the gas laws chapter, it's that if we're talking about doubling temperature, we'd better be talking about absolute temperature.

In spite of the atrocious largely gibberish title, this is a How It's Made video about cement. The video covers initial limestone blasting (open pit mining, I guess), rock crushing, mixing to reach the right proportion of calcium carbonate, bonding the minerals together  and degassing (carbon dioxide release, anybody?) them via heat, and final grinding.

And then...and then...and then...

Sorry, the hypnotic motion of the grinding balls got me there for a second.

Where was I?

How It's Made Ingine Pistons

I'm kind of amazed that the forging (1:30) is done by hand. The movement of the preheated, prulubed slugs into the press would seem to be very easily done by machine. I'm also a little surprised that the final sanding/smoothing at 4:15 is done by hand as well.

High heat to strengthen the metal then lower heat to stabilize it? That sounds kind of like annealing and tempering.

How It's Made Acrylic Awards

Wait, the mix monomer with polymer? I'm not sure that's correctly said.

The highlight here comes about 3:00 in when they carve the acrylic cube into a sphere by making shaping cuts on the huge lathe. Just watching the acrylic fly off of the lathe before the award is etched.

How does the laser beam carve inside the alrylic (4:20)?

How It's Made - Train Rails

That's a little different from the rolling mills that we use in camp.

I'm impressed with the various, specific temperatures and rates of cooling/heating mentioned in this video - poured, cooled, then reheated for 5-7 hours to 1250C...cooled to 500C...held for 10 hours to cool to 90C. Whoever came up with that exact order and rate was brilliant.

1:00 - down a ceramic tube...'cause ceramics have higher melting points doncha know?
2:30 - those inspectors look to have a rough job, eh?