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Engineering and basketball go together as we begin the Sweet 16 games in the NCAA tournament, but just how has engineering affected the game?

History

In 1891, at Springfield College, Massachusetts, Dr. James Naismith, a thirty-year old physical education instructor, was encouraged to create an indoor, winter “athletic distraction.” Using two vegetable baskets, a soccer ball, nine men per team, and a ladder to retrieve the ball from the basket, the game of basketball came into existence. He never entertained the notion of patenting his new game because it was for recreational fun. “Basketball is just a game to play. It doesn’t need a coach… you don’t coach basketball, you just play it.” Despite his comment, in 1900 he became the basketball coach for the Jayhawks at the University of Kansas.

Between 1892 and 1894, formal rules were devised, an inflated leather, albeit occasionally lopsided, ball was invented, backboards were designed so fans could not reach over and deflect the shots, and iron hoops and hammock-style enclosed baskets were introduced to the game. It was another decade before open-ended nets were used. On January 18, 1896, the first “experimental” college basketball game was played between the University of Iowa and the University of Chicago. The final score: Chicago 15, Iowa 12.

The Ball

In the 1930s a flurry of patents were filed suggesting that the game was becoming a viably commercial sport. However, the ball is considered the most important piece of equipment. The original basketball was patented in 1929 (see U.S. Patent 1,718,305). It was made of leather on the outside and butyl rubber on the inside. Zinc and cooper plates imprinted the label onto the ball. Today, the Wilson Sports Good Company is maker of the official NCA basketball, the Solution. The company’s patented composite-leather technology absorbs moisture and the pebbled-triangle design creates for better ball handling (see U.S. Patent 4,570,931).

The game of basketball continues to evolve with technology enhancements such as breakaway rims, vision replay, and performance shoes. If only Dr. Naismith could have foreseen the future of his fun “athletic distraction.”

References

The Physics of Basketball (Engineering Library QC26 .F66 2006)

Two Guys From Barnum, Iowa and How They Helped Save Basketball: A History of U.S. Patent 4,534,556 by Francis B. Francois (2008)

Basketball STEM Project

America’s Story from America’s Library

The Coach’s Clipboard

Top 5: Early Basketball Patents

 

Join us tomorrow Wednesday March 26th for a 15 minute class on using–Protein Database:  3-D Protein structures.  The class will be held at 2:30 in the Engineering Library (2001C SC) http://goo.gl/N9eS1v

Taught by Chris Childs (Health Sciences Education and Outreach Librarian, Hardin Library for the Health Sciences)

On March 14 at 1:59 pm we gather together to celebrate the most famous and mysterious of numbers.  That Pi is defined as the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter seems simple enough but Pi turns out to be an “irrational number.”  Computer scientists have calculated billions of digits of pi, starting with 3.14159265358979323…, no recognizable pattern emerges in the digits.  Scientists could continue calculating the next digit all the way to infinity and still have no idea which digit might emerge next.  To these facts can be added that March 14 is also Einstein’s birthday.

Pi is a number that has fascinated scholars for 4,000 years.  The mathematical history of pi comes from around the world.  In 1900 B.C., the Babylonians calculated the area of the circle by taking 3 times the square of its radius.  One Babylonian tablet (ca 1900-1680 B.C.) indicates a value of 3.125 for pi, which is a close approximation. Around 1650 B.C., the Rhind Papyrus, a famous document of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom, also calculated the area of a circle which gave the approximate value of 3.1605.

 

In 250 B.C., the Greek mathematician Archimedes calculated the circumference of a circle to its  diameter.  Archimedes  value , was not only more accurate; it was the first theoretical rather than measured calculations of pi.  Archimedes knew that he had not found the value of pi but only an approximation. He used a fairy simply geometrical approach for his calculations.  See how he did it by launching the interactive model on this pbs.org site: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/approximating-pi.html

 

 

Zu Chongzhi (429-501 AD?) was a Chinese mathematician and astronomer, who was not familiar with Archimedes method. He calculated the value of the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Unfortunately, his book has been lost so very little is known of his work.

In 1761, a Swiss mathematician Johann Heinrich Lambert (1782-1777) proved the irrationality of pi.  An irrational number is a number that cannot be made into a fraction where the decimal never ends or repeat sequences.

By 1882, F. Lindeman proved that pi was transcendental, that is, that pi is not the root of any algebraic equation with rational coefficients.  This discovery proved that you can’t “square the circle” which was a problem that vexed many mathematicians up to that time.  Another fascination for mathematicians throughout history was to calculate the digits of pi, but until computers, less than 1,000 digits had been calculated.  With the calculations of the computer, millions of digits have been calculated.

REFERENCES:

Adiran, Y. E. O.  The Pleasures of Pi, e and Other Interesting Numbers.  Singapore: World Scientific Pub., c2006.  Engineering Library QA95 .A2 2006

Alsina, Claudi.  Icons of Mathematics:  An Exploration of Twenty Key Images. Washington, D.C.:  Mathematical Association of America c2011.   http://site.ebrary.com/lib/uiowa/Doc?id=10728529

Beckman, Petr.  The History of Pi. Boulder: Colorado: The Golem Press, 1977.  Main Math Collection QA484 .B4 1977

Chongzhi, Zu.  Encyclopedia Britannica.  Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 2014.  Web, 10 March 2014.    Http://wwwbritannica.com / EBchecked/topic/1073884/Zu-Chongzhi.   Main Reference Collection AE5 .E363 2010

Exploratorium. (2014). Pi Day. Retrieved from http://www.exploratorium.edu/pi/

Gillings, R. Mathematics in the Time of the Pharaohs. Boston, MA: MIT Press, 89-103, 1972.  Main Math Collection QA27.E3 G52 

Gardner, Milo. “Rhind Papyrus.” From MathWorld–A Wolfram Web Resource, created by Eric W. Weisstein. http://mathworld.wolfram.com/RhindPapyrus.html

A facsimile of this papyrus can also be found at the
Main Oversize FOLIO PJ1681 R5 1927
Main Math Collection FOLIO PJ1681 R5 1927

Hobson, Ernest William.  Squaring the Circle and Other Monographs. New York: Chelsea, 1953.  Main Math Collection QA467 .H62 1953 

KHANACADEMY. (2014). A Song About A Circle Constant. Retrieved from https://www.khanacademy.org/math/recreational-math/vi-hart/pi-tau/v/a-song-about-a-circle-constant

Libeskind, Shlomo.  Euclidean and Transformational Geometry: A Deductive Inquiry. Sudbury, Mass.:  Jones and Bartlett Publishers, c 2008. Engineering Library QA453 .L53 2008 

Mackenzie, D. “Fractions to Make an Egyptian Scribe Blanch.” Science 278, 224, 1997.

McCall, Martin W.  Classical Mechanics:  From Newton to Einstein: A Modern Introduction.  Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2010.  Engineering Library QC125.2 .M385 2011 

Robins, G. and Shute, C. The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus: An Ancient Egyptian Text. New York: Dover, 1990. Main Math Collection QA30.3 .R63 1987 

Weingardt, Richard.  Circles in The Sky:  The Life and Times of George Ferris.  Reston, VA,: American Society of Civil Engineers, C.2009.  Engineering Library TA140.F455 W45 2009

Join the Lichtenberger Engineering Library and the People in Engineering LLC for an exciting afternoon of free pie and Pi(e) trivia.

The fun begins at 1:59 pm on 3.14 in the Seamans Center Student Commons.

Show off your knowledge of Pi(e). Form a team of four and pre-register for a trivia game at http://goo.gl/Ncnvmy.

Pi Day is open to all students, faculty, and staff. Be there or……. be square!

Alexander Graham Bell is known as an inventor, scientist, and engineering.  He is well-known for his invention of the telephone and was involved in many other inventions.

His invention of the telephone came from his desire to help the deaf hear and had done research into speech articulation following his father’s work.  The patent was issued on March 7, 1876.  The telephone itself is clouded with controversy of who invented it first and lead to a series of lawsuits.  This includes lawsuits with such people as an Italian inventor, Antonio Meucci.  The most famous conflict is with Elisha Gray , who visited the patent office the same day as Bell had submitted his patent application with a claim on a similar design.  Bell eventually came up on top in these cases and, with in a year of patenting, set up the Bell Telephone Company.

 

After the telephone, Bell went on to completely different experiments and inventions.  Many of these were related to the areas of medical science.  He worked extensively on creating a mechanical breathing apparatus, the predecessor of the iron lung. He had hope to save the lives of drowning victims and premature babies. Bell also conducted research into heavier-than-air flight and founded the Aerial Experiment Association.

Bell sought to advance scientific knowledge and was one of the founding members of the National Geographic Society.  He was the president from 1898 to 1903.

Learn More: 

• Videos:
  • Davis, Rick. 2005. Alexander graham bell: Voice of invention. New York, NY : A&E Television Networks
  • McInerney, Michael, Entertainment Network Arts and, Edelman Productions., and History Channel (Television network). 2006. Man, moment, machine. alexander graham bell & the astonishing telephone. New York, N.Y.: A&E Television Networks
• Books
  • Bell, Alexander Graham,. 1881. Proof from alexander graham bell’s own mouth: That he never contemplated a speaking telephone in his 1876 patent and that he never transmitted speech with any instrument mentioned in said patent, but on the contrary made a complete failure in every effort to do so. United States : s.n.  Law Electronic Resource.
  • Dickerson, E. N., James Jackson Storrow , Chauncey Smith , A. E. Dolbear, Telephone Company Molecular, Telephone Company Clay Commercial, Telephone Company American Bell, Telephone Company People’s, Overland Telephone Company of,New Jersey, and United States. 2007. The telephone appeals. Buffalo, NY: William S. Hein & Co. Law Electronic Resource.
  • Eber, Dorothy. 1982. Genius at work : Images of alexander graham bell. New York : Viking Press TK6143.B4 E23 Main Library.
  • Evenson, A. E. 2000. The telephone patent conspiracy of 1876 : The elisha gray-alexander bell controversy and its many players . Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland  TK6018.B4 E94 2000 Main Library.
  • Gray, Charlotte,. 2006. Reluctant genius : Alexander graham bell and the passion for invention / charlotte gray. Vol. 1st U.S. ed. New York : Arcade Pub. : Distributed by Hachette Book Group USA  TK6143.B4 G73 2006 Engineering Library.
  • Grosvenor, Edwin S., and Morgan Wesson . 1997. Alexander graham bell : The life and times of the man who invented the telephone. New York : Harry Abrams  FOLIO TK6143.B4 G76 1997 Main Oversize.
  • Schils, René. 2012. How james watt invented the copier: Forgotten inventions of our great scientists. New York, NY : Springer Science+Business Media, LLC Electronic Resource
  • Shulman, Seth. 2008. The telephone gambit : Chasing alexander graham bell’s secret / seth shulman. Vol. 1st ed. New York : W. W. Norton & Co.  TK6018.B4 S58 2008 Engineering Library.

 

References: 

• Bell, Alexander Graham, Photograph, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online, accessed March 3, 2014,  http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/76302/Alexander-Graham-Bell
• Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s. v. “Alexander Graham Bell,” accessed March 03, 2014, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/59564/Alexander-Graham-Bell.
• Davis, Rick. 2005. Alexander graham bell: Voice of invention. New York, NY : A&E Television Networks
• Schils, René. 2012. How james watt invented the copier: Forgotten inventions of our great scientists. New York, NY : Springer Science+Business Media, LLC Electronic Resource
• Shulman, Seth. 2008. The telephone gambit : Chasing alexander graham bell’s secret / seth shulman. Vol. 1st ed. New York : W. W. Norton & Co.  TK6018.B4 S58 2008 Engineering Library.
• telephone: Bell inaugurating the telephone link between New York City and Chicago on Oct. 18, 1892, Photograph, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online, accessed March 3, 2014,http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/120540/Alexander-Graham-Bell-who-patented-the-telephone-in-1876-inaugurating

MECCA Week was a tradition at the University of Iowa College of Engineering for many years.  This celebration took place around St. Patrick’s Day, due to St. Patrick being the patron saint of engineers.   One popular event was the search for the Blarney Stone. It is named for the Blarney Stone in Ireland which, when kissed by leaning backward from a parapet in Blarney Castle, is said to give the “gift of eloquence.”

During MECCA week, the students of the engineering college would compete in order to find the Blarney Stone, a 13”x11”x6” piece of granite that is supposed to come from Ireland, a tradition which began in 1910. The stone would be hidden by the graduating class, and they would then give the underclassmen clues in the form of engineering problems to solve. Eventually, this tradition was turned into a competition between the law students and the engineering students to see who could find the Stone first. If the law students found it before the engineers, the engineers would be “in disgrace” for the entire year. MECCA week was the peak of the rivalry between the engineering students and the law students, with creative pranks abounding.

The search for the Blarney Stone was not easy, however. In 1912, the instructions for locating the stone were lost, and the Stone was not found until 27 years later when they finally resurfaced. Ironically, the Blarney Stone was found hidden in the basement of the Engineering Building. The stone was not found in 1947, either, necessitating the purchase of a new Blarney Stone by the class who had failed. Further complicating the search was the enormous area in which it could be hidden—anywhere within a 25 mile radius of Iowa City.

 

 

Can you solve these problems to find the stone? How about the one written in German?

 

Here are some articles written in the Daily Iowa about the search for the Blarney Stone:

From The Daily Iowan. 17 Mar. 1959.

 

Further Reading:

• MECCA Celebration 1915. The Transit. Volume 19.  http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/eng/transit/transitV19/display.asp?p=63
• Putnam, K.S.  1911. St. Patrick’s Day Celebration. The Transit. Volume 16 (1911). http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/eng/transit/transitV16/display.asp?p=90
• Daily Iowan Article from March 16, 1948.  http://dailyiowan.lib.uiowa.edu/DI/1948/di1948-03-16.pdf
• Daily Iowan From March 14, 1962 http://www.engineering.uiowa.edu/~mecca/DIart62.pdf
• MECCA History (College of Engineering) http://www.engineering.uiowa.edu/~mecca/history.htm
• MECCA 2001 http://www.engineering.uiowa.edu/~mecca/MECCA2001.pdf
• MECCA Memories and Comments: http://www.engineering.uiowa.edu/~mecca/MECCAmem1.pdf

 

References

• Kress, Kay. “Search for Blarney Stone Begins.” The Daily Iowan. 17 Mar. 1959. http://dailyiowan.lib.uiowa.edu/DI/ 1959/di1959-03-17.pdf
• “Kiss the Blarney Stone.” Blarney Castle. (n.d.). http://www.blarneycastle.ie/pages/kiss-the-blarney-stone
• https://blog.lib.uiowa.edu/eng/celebrating-engineers/

The College of Engineering celebrates E-Week in conjunction with National Engineers Week, February 16 – 22, 2014. During E-Week, a variety of student-organized activities help celebrate and recognize engineers and their contributions to society.

However, did you know that the College of Engineering founded a similar event more than 100 years ago? On March 17, 1910, the Associated Students of Applied Sciences organized a parade and a vaudeville show to honor St. Patrick, the patron saint and founder of engineering. Three years later, the event was renamed MECCA. The letters represented the five divisions of engineering (Mechanical, Electrical, Civil, Chemical, and Architectural) and spelled a word which denotes a place to which pilgrimages are made. For sixty years, MECCA Day was a lively annual homecoming for The College of Engineering students and alumni.

The Blarney Stone was the symbol of MECCA. The graduating class would hide a greenish colored rock, no larger than a baseball, for the underclassmen to find. Elaborate, mathematical calculations provided clues for locating the stone. In 1912, the Blarney Stone was hidden as usual but the directions were missing. Twenty-eight years later, the stone was recovered when the instructions were found.

 

Other traditions included parades, formal banquets and balls, satirical plays, beard contests and “Smokers.”

REFERENCES

“The Ninth Annual Engineers’ Banquet,” The Transit, Volume 16 (1911), p.85

“The MECCA Celebration – 1915,” The Transit, Volume 19 (1915), p. 63

“MECCA,” The Transit, Volume 25 (1921), p. 26

Iowa City Town and Campus Scenes, The University of Iowa Libraries Iowa Digital Library

What is more romantic than riding a Ferris wheel? Considering George W. G. Ferris, Jr. was born on Valentine’s Day in 1859, perhaps nothing. Ferris was an engineer who graduated from Rensselear Polytechnic Institute (Troy, NY) and founded the G.W.G. Ferris & Co. firm (Pittsburgh, PA) which tested and inspected metals for railroads and bridges. He is credited for creating the first large, steel amusement ride.

But was the Ferris wheel the first of its kind?

The 1893 World’s Fair was to be held in Chicago, and the fair’s organizers wanted to rival the Eiffel Tower which had been constructed for the Paris World’s Fair in 1889. Having recently ridden a fifty-foot wooden “observation roundabout,” which had been built and soon would be patented by William Somers, Farris was inspired to enter the competition with his paper-napkin drawing of an enormous park ride. The constructed 45-foot axle-wheel powered by two 1,000 horsepower steam engines was supported by two 140-foot steel towers and it carried thirty-six wooden cars, each car holding 60 passengers, 264 feet high into the air.

Because of its size, people were reticent to ride Ferris’ wheel. For safety measures, the enclosed cars were fitted with heavy iron screens, locked doors and fire equipment. Also, conductors rode in each car to answer questions and to calm nerves. During the World’s Fair, more than 1,750,000 passengers rode without incident.

REFERENCES

Books

• Circles in the Sky: The Life and Times of George Ferris by Richard G. Weingardt. ASCE Press, 2009
• Ferris Wheels: An Illustrated History by Norman D. Anderson. Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1992

Newspapers

• “The Big Ferris Wheel.” The Alleghenian, 1 July 1893. Retrieved from Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, North Side: People: George Ferris
• “The Ferris Wheel Decided to Be an Infringement of the Somers Wheel.” Atlantic City Dispatch, 19 November 1893. Retrieved from America’s Historical Newspapers
• “Ferris Wheel Profits.” The Kansas City Star. 9 November 1893. Retrieved from America’s Historical Newspapers
• “The Ferris Wheel Turns and Mrs. Ferris Gives a Toast” from The Pittsburg Commercial Gazette, 17 June 1893. Retrieved from Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, North Side: People: George Ferris
• “A Great Rush to Chicago.” New York Times, 22 June 1893. Retrieved from ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times (1851 – 2009)

Patents

In 1893, Somers filed a lawsuit against Ferris for patent infringement; however, Ferris and his lawyers successfully argued that the Ferris Wheel and its technology differed from Somers’ wheel, and the case was dismissed. The U.S. Patent Office has issued more than 100 patents for various vertical amusement rides, but Ferris never patented his invention.

Somers, William. Roundabout. U.S. Patent 489,238, January 3, 1893 (Google Patents)

Compiled list of U.S. Patents for Ferris Wheels (Penn State)

 

 

Standards

In 1978, the American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM) formed the F24 committee to create standards for the design, testing, manufacturing, and operation of amusement park rides.

• Standard Practice for Ownership, Operation, Maintenance, and Inspection of Amusement Rides and Devices, ASTM F770, Sept. 1, 2013 (4 pages)
• Standard Practice for Measuring the Dynamic Characteristics of Amusement Rides and Devices, ASTM F2137, Aug. 1, 2013 (7 pages)
• Standard Practice for Design of Amusement Rides and Devices, ASTM F2291, Aug. 1, 2013 (52 pages)

Internet

• “The Big Wheel” from the Hyde Park Historical Society Newsletter, Spring 2000. Retrieved from Hyde Park Historical Society
• The History of Theme Park Inventions by Mary Bellis. Retrieved from About.com Inventors

Charles Darwin is known for his work on the theory of evolution but did you also know he spent time researching earthworms? Each year on Feb 12th, we celebrate Darwin Day as a celebration on the anniversary of the birth of the historical scientist Charles Darwin, who was born on February 12, 1809. Darwin is most well-known for his publication On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1859. This publication was the first to rigorously describe biological evolution through natural selection (1).

In addition to being the founder of the theory of evolution, Darwin also began and ended his career with publications on earthworms.   His work with earthworms was also very controversial and was seen unfavorably in scientific circles.  Darwin experimented to show the intelligence and value of earthworms for crop production in a time when they were seen as pests that were dumb, blind, unpleasant, and slimy creatures. (2)

 

Darwin’s work with evolution along with Gregor Mendel’s work with genetics laid the ground work for modern biotechnology, genes, and heredity.  Bioengineers, today, hope to use the foundations of these works to cure certain hereditary diseases. (3)

Historic and current books on Darwin and the theory of evolution:

• Darwin, Charles. 1860. On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or The preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. New York: D. Appleton and company. Main Library QH365 .O2 1860a. or NetLibrary
• Seward, A.C. (Albert Charles). Darwin and Modern Science: Essays in Commemoration of the Centenary of the Birth of Charles Darwin and of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Publication of the Origin of Species. Champaign, Ill.: Project Gutenberg, (n.d.). NetLibrary Electronic Book 
• Ruse, Michael. Charles Darwin. Malden, MA : Blackwell Pub., 2008. Ebrary Electronic Book
• Darwin, Charles. Charles Darwin’s notebooks from the voyage of the Beagle. New York : Cambridge University Press, 2009. Main Library QH11 .D22 2009
• “Charles Darwin (1809-1882).”  BBC History. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/darwin_charles.shtml

Books on Darwin and Earthworms:

• Darwin, Charles. 1838. On the formation of mould. Proceedings of the Geological Society of London. 2, 574-576.
• Darwin, Charles. 1881. The formation of vegetable mould through the action of worms, with observations on their habits. London: John Murray. Special Collections Stein Collection QL394 .D3 1896 
• Brown, George G., et al. 2003. With Darwin, earthworms turn intelligent and become human friends. Pedobiologica. 47, 924-933. Electronic Access through ScienceDirect
• Feller, Christian, et al. 2003. Charles Darwin, earthworms and the natural sciences: various lessons from past to future. Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment. 99, 29-49. Electronic Access through ScienceDirect

 

References:

1. “About Darwin Day.” International Darwin Day Foundation. http://darwinday.org/about/
2. Schils, Rene.  2012. How James Watt invented the copier: forgotten inventions of our great scientists. New York: Springer. 71-76. Engineering Library T15 .S35513 2012
3. Marx, J.L. (ed.) 1989. A revolution in biotechnology. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 2-4.
4. Charles Darwin by Lock & Whitfield. 1877. National Portrait Gallery, London.  http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/use-this-image.php?mkey=mw62368