The APS 163 Modeling Project

The project should take the form of a careful explanation – a mathematical essay. After
reading your report, a person should be able to understand the model that you used, why you chose
it, which variables you kept and ignored and why you did so, as well as the conclusions that you
reached.

Following, there is a list of possible project topics. Read through them to get a sense of
both the types of things one can write about (physics, economics, game theory, etc.) and the depth
of argument that I would expect. Do not use any of these (other than “But the Book Was
Better...”), but rather come up with your own. Avoid doing anything that requires studying air
resistance or other friction forces, as the math goes from too simple to absolutely impossible in a
single step. Statistics, for different reasons, also ends up being a poor choice. If you do not know
where to start, e-mail me or Tyler or see me during office hours and we can discuss your project.
By June 1, you are to hand in a 200-word proposal outlining what you plan to model for your
essay, what resources you might need, and the level of mathematics that you expect to
encounter. This is an informal proposal; as long as your grammar is decent, it will suffice. This
part can even be done as text in the assignment submission.

The length of the project depends on a few factors. If the report has some very heavy
mathematics, then there is no need to pad it with too much writing past what is necessary to explain
the situation. If the math you use is very simple, you should probably take some time to explain the
larger implications (what if we changed some variables, or how would we use this in other contexts).
Overall, I would expect a report to be around three pages of text, to which the mathematical
equations/tables/diagrams will anywhere from one page to a few. The project must be
handed in as a PDF document, as other formats occasionally lose equations when transferred to
other programs.

Any project like this is very easy to lift from the Internet. Kindly resist the urge. We are
looking for a well-explained approach to a math problem, not a world-class piece of research (or the
equivalent to a Wikipedia article aimed at people with a considerably higher level of preparation). If
the mathematics you use stops at the grade 12 level, you will need to write the report very well and
perhaps include some ideas on how to expand the math behind it, but you can still score a perfect
mark. When you do go to outside sources, use what you learned in APS 111 to properly cite
the references. We will not be very strict with the format, but your pride should force you to write
it up properly.

Finally, if you wish to work in pairs, you can do so, but the project would need to be
proportionally larger and better. The project is officially due by 11:59pm on June 24.
 A Small Group of Project Ideas
Measuring Oomph

Impacts occur all around us constantly, but we rarely try to get a good measure of them. Just how
does the force of a raindrop falling on your head compare to, say, a falcon dropping onto an
unsuspecting rabbit? Probably the best measure is the kinetic energy of the impact – a raindrop will
carry about Joules, while the falcon, travelling at over 300 km/h, will carry
Joules. A car at 100 km/h smashing into a stationary object will have energy around 300 times
greater. Rather further up the scale, the impact that created Meteor Crater in Arizona carried about
as much energy as a 20 megaton hydrogen bomb, or around Joules. What can we make
of these numbers? Are there events in our lives that are significantly stronger or weaker than we
imagine them to be?

This project can be done with very low-level physics, or you can get into much more interesting
levels of mathematics. I recommend trying to do something creative at as high a level of math as
you can. Perhaps find a relation between mass and speed that optimizes some collision that you find
interesting, whether you are looking for more impact or less.

Precise Pop Cans

Everyone has seen the example of minimizing the amount of material used to create a cylindrical
can. In tutorial, we expanded on the idea by noting that the top and bottom are thicker than the
side of the can. How much more exact can we get? To begin, the circular top and bottom are not
created that way – they are cut out of a larger sheet. How do we minimize material if we cut the
circles so that they form a rectangular grid (that is, each circle is tangent to four others, one every 90
degrees)? How much if they form a hexagonal grid (each circle is tangent to six others, one every 60
degrees)? Forming the cans requires additional material to form a seam, which will add to the
material required, but joining the seam is a different process from simply cutting material.
Companies do not really care about the amount of material required; they care about the cost. If we
have one cost value for material and another for the seams (Do we include the extra material in the
cost of the seam or include it in the total material? Do we consider the two types of seams as having
the same cost?), what can we say about the ratio of the height to the radius for various values of the
costs?

This project is straightforward MAT Calculus I material. Everything can be handled just by adding
one detail at a time, until you run out of assumptions or the ability to compute. See if you can draw
some reasonable conclusions about actual products on the market and some unreasonable ones if
we let certain variables go too far.
 So You Think Your Band Is Loud?

You may remember me mentioning the way in which the fortifications around Jericho were
breached in the Book of Joshua (in the Test Writing video). Listen to the October 4, 2010 podcast
of Radiolab, a terrific show out of WNYC radio. This episode, titled The Walls of Jericho, tries to
figure out how this could be done using only the science of acoustics. The sheer scale of some of
the results is astounding. See what results you can reconstruct and explain.

This is another project that can go well beyond our current abilities in mathematics, but where there
is a lot that we can do now. A few simple formulae can let you prove quite a few of the results.
Since we already know the answers, though, you have to explain everything as well as possible.

But the Book was Better

A lot of movies have characters perform the impossible. This is to be expected – the characters in a
Shakespearean play speak in a way that none of us can, but that is part of why the plays are so good.
When movies do away with physics, there seem to be many people who take exception with what
they see on screen, but few who actually analyze what is happening.

Pick some scene that seems to break with physics and try to evaluate what is happening. Is it
actually something that cannot be done, or simply an exceptional act? One of my favourite essays
has been an extension of an XKCD blog entry showing that Yoda exerts about 19kW in levitating
the X-Wing out of the bog. The student shows that this number pales in comparison with the
Emperor shooting electricity out of his hands, which rated at about 850kW. If you do choose Star
Wars, please remember that there are only three movies in the series.

A Winter Wonderland

A couple of iceberg-related projects (probably the first time those words have ever been put in that
particular order), one from an engineering point of view, and the other due to physics.

1) Towing icebergs – The world’s greatest source of fresh water is polar ice. Greenland
manufactures about 5% of the total icebergs (falling far behind those tri-symmetric H.P.
Lovecraft aliens in Antarctica, with 90% of the production). If we were to use icebergs as a
source of fresh water, here are a few questions: how far should we tow them – to the places
that need them, or to places with the facilities to melt the ice and ship out fresh water?
Should we get our ice from the Europeans or do we trust the financial system of the
Antarctic regime? How much ice should we get? How does one even tow an iceberg?
(Actually, the name for it is inaccurate, as we often push these behemoths using icebreakers
– it is one of the most amazing things you will ever see.) If we do tow the icebergs, what
 kind of cable will we need? What velocity should we give the bergs if we do not want them
to destroy the harbor?
2) Drifting icebergs –Earth’s rotation pulls icebergs toward the equator. Imagine wrapping the
iceberg in a watertight membrane and then melting it. The water has a lower centre of
gravity than the ice, so the ‘centrifugal force’ on the ice creates a greater force perpendicular
to the axis of rotation than it does on the water. The component of this in the direction of
the axis is therefore greater on ice than it is on water, dragging the iceberg toward the
equator. Can you find the amount of force this creates? It is very weak relative to currents
and winds, but it is exceedingly steady. What is the acceleration? If some icebergs survive
for a full year or even two, how far will this drag be able to carry them? Keep in mind that
some Greenland icebergs have made it nearly to Bermuda.

The level of mathematics here is up to you – anywhere from grade 12 Physics, all the way to some
really neat stuff. Do what you like, as long as it’s interesting.

Like Smaug in His Lair...

Berkshire Hathaway is a company that started in textiles and is now one of the largest (and definitely
the most admired) investment firms in the world. It is run by the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett.
The company keeps a cash reserve of $41 billion. The largest U.S. bill made these days is the lowly
$100 bill. If this reserve was held in actual cash (as opposed to a few bytes in some computer), it
would make a cube 75 metres to a side. That is most of a football field long, by two widths of a
field wide, and about 25 stories high.

Find some other element of finance that boggles the mind (Feynman, I believe, had said that with
the size of the numbers being tossed around by businesses, we should stop calling large numbers
“astronomical” and start calling them “financial”). Discuss it within a mathematical context. It will
be difficult to find something that takes up a couple of pages (the example above would fill out
perhaps a half-page), but may be an interesting introduction to that world for those of you who are
considering the possibility of a P.Eng. combined with an MBA.

The Centroid of Saskatchewan

Yup.By the IVT, at some location the province can be balanced on a pin. Prove so and find it.

Saskatchewan seems rectangular – just two lines of latitude and two of longitude… until you
consider that the longitude lines that define its east and west borders get progressively closer… but
not linearly… and then there’s the curvature of the Earth on the whole shape… and maybe we
should see just how flat the province is… or whether the depth of Earth’s crust changes our result,
etc. Go as far as your mathematical skills will carry you and maybe set up just a little more.