Math Story Problem

E-mail | 14 June 2006 | Unknown

[decal]

This has to be right up there among the contenders for the Darwin Awards...

Math Story Problem for the not-so-new century...let's see if our engineering section can solve this one.

A backhoe weighing eight tons is on top of a flatbed trailer and heading east on Interstate 70 near Hays, Kansas. The extended shovel arm is made of hardened refined steel and the approaching overpass is made of commercial-grade concrete, reinforced with 1 1/2 inch steel rebar spaced at 6 inch intervals in a criss-cross pattern layered at 1 foot vertical spacing.

Solve: When the shovel arm hits the overpass, how fast do you have to be going to slice the bridge in half? (Assume no effect for headwind and no braking by the clueless driver...)

Extra Credit: Solve for the time and distance required for the entire rig to come to a complete stop after hitting the overpass at the speed calculated above. (No... you can't consult the driver. He likely had to have his face scraped off the inside of the windshield.)

[decal]

This happened last February - didn't find an article in FR about it.

More pix at:

http://www.pho89.com/i70_damaged_bridge.htm

[rottndog]

That's a great candidate for the oops list, if it isn't already posted their.

http://www.micom.net/oops/

[El Gato]

Whoa

I was fine until I got to that last picture. That had a to leave a bruise on someone.

[saganite]

Could you just give us the abridged version please?

[Larry Lucido]

Ping

[lesser_satan]

ouch and oi-vey

[JRios1968]

I am surprised no one has come up with the answer yet
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Answer: PRETTY DARN FAST!!

[Larry Lucido]

Tow-backhoe Road?

[saganite]

Groan.

[decal]

By Ers Kan't Haul-well.

[Larry Lucido]

Looks like that Hyundai trailer is wearing "Bridgestone" tires now.

Okay, you've been great, folks. I'm outta here!

[Nomorjer Kinov]

The photos would make great marketing for Hyundai heavy equipment. I would have thought there would have been more evident damage to the machine in such an accident. The Hyundai equipment won the battle of the bridge.

[taxesareforever]

That's a good site. Thanks for the laughs.

[Clinging Bitterly]

Being in the construction equipment business, I have seen those pix circulating around our email circles for quite a while.

The excavator has what appears to be a "super long front". That style of boom is used a lot for mucking out ponds and this excavator does have a muck bucket on it.

Unless the machine turned itself around on impact, it was turned the wrong way. Instead of hanging over the back of the lowboy, the long boom would have to have been over the cab of the tractor, and almost certainly would have been too high for the bridge.

But hey I have seen a lot more stupid stuff than that. Years ago, at another company I worked for, we had a driver transporting a rubber tired Bantam log loader between our Eugene and Portland stores. The machine was too high to haul on a trailer easily but being roadworthy up to about 50 MPH he was just driving it up the freeway.

The operators cab had a scissor lift so it could be raised high for visibility in the woods and then lowered for roading. I don't need to tell you, I don't guess, that the driver was having good fun riding high and just lowering himself for the bridges. He either spaced off that last bridge or the equipment just quit working and he planted his face and the rest of himself smack into the side of the bridge at full speed. Oh yeah he was as dead as you can get.

[Colorado Doug]

As long as we're doing math problems, here's one I got in my email today:

Math 1950-2006 (new version)

Last week I purchased a burger at Burger King for $1.58. The counter girl took my $2 and I was digging for my change when I pulled 8 cents from my pocket and gave it to her. She stood there, holding the nickel and 3 pennies, while looking at the screen on her register. I sensed her discomfort and tried to tell her to just give me two quarters, but she hailed the manager for help. While he tried to explain the transaction to her, she stood there and cried. Why do I tell you this?

Because of the evolution in teaching math since the 1950's:



1. Teaching Math In 1950

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit?

2. Teaching Math In 1960

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit?

3. Teaching Math In 1970

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80. Did he make a profit?

4. Teaching Math In 1980

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20. Your assignment: Underline the number 20.



5. Teaching Math In 1990

A logger cuts down a beautiful forest because he is selfish and inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habitat of animals or the preservation of our woodlands. He does this so he can make a profit of $20. What do you think of this way of making a living? Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down their homes? (There are no wrong answers. )

6. Teaching Math In 2006

Un hachero vende una carretada de maderapara $100. El costo de la producciones es $80.

[Clinging Bitterly]

Oh no that excavator is totaled, no question. I can see a ruined main frame (40 grand), booms (30 grand), hydraulic cylinders (20 grand), main control valve (20 grand), engine (15 grand) and sheet metal (20 grand), and swing bearing (10 grand). It is not worth fixing.

The bridge is seriously wounded, but without a doubt, the bridge won.

[Tunehead54]

Solve: When the shovel arm hits the overpass, how fast do you have to be going to slice the bridge in half?

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Just a little bit faster ... ;-)

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Well, I just have to add this ... We were moving from San Diego to the Tampa area, I was driving the 24' moving van with a four-wheels-off-the-ground trailer with my '70 Volvo station wagon (145s) on-board when we started under an underpass in Tucson, AZ and I realized our clearance wasn't good enough so I stopped - basically in a tunnel.

It being drive time the cops showed up. Something about blocking traffic.

A cop directed my wife (following in another car) to go through to the other side and wait. She did, waiting with my five year-old daughter and my 2 year-old daughter.

Normally, its "Yes Officer, Yes Sir" (I am always polite to officers - no matter what ...)but with me stuck under the underpass they all of a sudden decided that my wife was "on the run" and put out an APB on her.

I got the truck backed up and was held at gunpoint for over three hours.

She was parked on the other side of the underpass all this time. Now - why I'm telling the story ... It took so long she had to use a diaper so she could pee while she waited and wondered ... ;-) Hee Hee! Sorry, just had to tell this one!

Just so you know - I've never been arrested, we were clearly a family moving, I had a valid DL, insurance, rental receipts, etc. stopped before an obstacle, no accident occurred, and yet we got the 3rd degree. My daughter considered applying to UA in Tucson - where I graduated from. I said, "No". ;-)

And no crap about ending a sentence with a preposition - its too late. Nite. ;-)

[Colorado Doug]

While I was working for a blasting company, one of the drill operators didn't see any good reason to lower the boom for tramming the rig. He also didn't see the overhead power-lines. A track drill only trams at a speed of a couple miles an hour, tops. He evidently didn't see the initial sparks before the electric companies overloads blew. I would assume that he probably had to give it more power too while he was dragging some 12,000 feet of power line behind him, breaking the tees off of the power-poles as the wire stretched tight on each 300 foot section. I don't remember how far he had to go before he broke a full two and one half miles of cross tees on every pole along the line. The power was out for about a twenty-five mile radius for several days.

[decal]

"Unless the machine turned itself around on impact, it was turned the wrong way."

Well, you can see the taillights on the lowboy in pic 1, so it was going from right-to-left in the pix.

That in turn explains why the railing of the bridge wasn't affected - the boom was facing forward, hitting just underneath the railing, and was forced backward by the momentum of the truck.

So the backhoe travelled, what, maybe 50 feet from the time it hit the bridge until it stopped? That truck must have been going really FAST when this happened - and then suddenly went really SLOW.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

ROFL!