You Know You're A Nerd When:

[cubinator]

When you have a fancy gyroscope with a Kevlar string that runs for minutes at a time.

[0111narwhalz]

When the only cordage in the house is Kevlar and cable-pulling twine.

[max_creative]

When you tell your friends to throw the water bottle differently when they are water bottle flipping because they don't have enough angular velocity and they just look at you strangely.  

[kerbiloid]

^{(wrong thread)}

Edited February 28, 2017 by kerbiloid

[0111narwhalz]

When the things you call "cold" vaporise tungsten, and the things you call "hot" would freeze air.

Edited March 2, 2017 by 0111narwhalz

[Ultimate Steve]

When you use STEM class (Which at my school is an awesome class where you can work on any project you desire so long as you show productivity) to design a spaceship.

 

[cubinator]

4 minutes ago, Ultimate Steve said:

When you use STEM class (Which at my school is an awesome class where you can work on any project you desire so long as you show productivity) to design a spaceship.

 

That sounds amazing. How long is the class period?

[Ultimate Steve]

Just now, cubinator said:

That sounds amazing. How long is the class period?

About 80 minutes, same as the others. (By far the best class of the day!) (My school has A days and B days, with 4 classes in each, 8 total)

Short summary of spaceship SHERPA: 2m diameter capsule, 2m tall, tapering to 0.75m. Smaller pressure vessel inside where I would sit. Orbital Power Module which contains retrorockets, antennas, radiators, etc. above main capsule (jettisoned before re-entry). Above that is the LES. The heat shield is made of AVCOAT with a beryllium heat sink behind just in case. The rocket would be two stage kerolox with two or four solid rocket boosters.

Long summary of spaceship SHERPA:

Spoiler

The capsule has two layers, the pressure vessel and the structural vessel. The pressure vessel is roughly 1.75m by 1m by 1m with some tapering/curving. The walls are made of a structural element I designed called Aluminum Pentacomb (although it's really more of a Hexatruss than a Pentacomb, I just came up with the latter first and the name stuck) which is a triangular web of aluminum struts sandwiched between two sheets of aluminum. The whole structure would be made in sheets 2.4cm thick. The outer layer, the structural vessel, is made of a similar material called Alluminum-Rene Pentacomb, which is the same as APC, but the outer sheet of aluminum is replaced with a sheet of rene 41, a heat resistant alloy used on the Mercury capsule. These two vessels would be supported by a lot of struts, also aluminum.

The Orbital power module is 0.75m in diameter and 0.5m in height and sits on top of the capsule, containing radiators (undersigned), antennas (undersigned as well), cubesat dispensers (I also haven't designed them yet) and retrorockets (you guessed it, undersigned...).

the RCS system would be simple compressed oxygen (the mission would only stay in orbit for a day, I shouldn't need anything more) with four three way thrusters providing full rotational control. The least that I could lose and still have 3 axis control would be 2 out of 12. But I could still roll, then, so the real danger is if I lose a specific 5 thrusters.

I have not designed life support, spacesuits, the ejection seat, parachute, or much else, really.

I briefly touched upon computers and batteries, the computer would be in the pressure vessel and powered by a smaller version of a Tesla battery. The control panel would be old-school switches (because flicking switches is infinitely more satisfying than using a touch screen). I sketched a 1:1 drawing of the control panel. It currently has over 50 switches, and capability for full manual control if needed.

The heat shield would be an outer layer of AVCOAT, the stuff used on the Apollo heat shield. Just in case, there is also a beryllium heat sink behind that.

The empty pressure vessel, structural vessel, and heat shield would weigh about 700kg.

Communication would be provided by two whip antennas on the OPM and one low gain in the unpressurized section, plus a recovery beacon.

There would be three abort modes. Mode one would fire the LES with the horizontal motor (to be used during early launch), Mode two would fire the LES without the sideways motor (late launch), and Mode Three would activate the ejector seat (for use during a parachute failure).

There are two windows so far, the hatch window above my head and the main window in front of my head, which is actually two windows, one in the pressure vessel, one in the structural vessel.

Now, the rocket I haven't designed much yet. The idea was that I'd figure out how much the capsule would weigh and then build a rocket around that with 10km/s of DV (I know I only need ~9.3, but just in case...). Although I don't know many specifics, I know the layout I want it to be: S2 would be kerolox and have some sort of RCS system, S1 would be the same but bigger and with fins, and there would be two or four solid rocket boosters.

 

What are other people doing in STEM, you ask?

Building a racetrack for R/C cars.

Figuring out algorithms for checkers.

Building a CD thrower.

Building a drone.

Designing a website.

Building trebuchets.

Testing different paper airplanes.

Designing better throwing cards.

Designing an anti classroom break in system (the first test of which consisted of tying rope to the door handle and to the teacher's chair...).

 

In each class period I usually get hit with throwing cards at least three times. The drone guy almost kills himself at least once testing a propeller. I get hit by bottle caps at least once (because the people doing the CD thrower are using bottle caps as a small scale test). I usually get hit with paper airplanes as well. And random balls of tape.

On one occasion I had to prove to the drone guy that my space capsule would be aerodynamically stable. So I spent a whole thirty seconds building a cardboard wedge denser at the bottom and dropped it down the 3 story tall gap between the stairwells, upside down. It righted itself.

 

And I love every second of it!

 

You know you're a nerd when you can write all that from memory!

[munlander1]

You know your a nerd when you listen to the "we chose to go to the moon..." speech instead of music or when you are stressed.

 

I have only had 2 classes really devoted to stem. The teacher was mean and the projects were stupid. 

Edited March 3, 2017 by munlander1

[kerbiloid]

30 minutes ago, munlander1 said:

The teacher was mean and the projects were stupid

The true wisdom doesn't get clear at once...

[munlander1]

2 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

The true wisdom doesn't get clear at once...

?

[kerbiloid]

17 minutes ago, munlander1 said:

?

The teacher wants only the good for you.
Even if he is a monster.
Like a vaccine. A small evil prepares you to withstand a bigger one.

[munlander1]

6 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

The teacher wants only the good for you.
Even if he is a monster.
Like a vaccine. A small evil prepares you to withstand a bigger one.

That makes sense 

[WinkAllKerb'']

when what you can possibly perceive, see, ear, feel, measure is not necessarely what really happen

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/46/Praxinoscopio_de_Reynayd.jpg/1280px-Praxinoscopio_de_Reynayd.jpg
when hum de-framing, revert framing, out of reach framing because, just because, something 

Edited March 4, 2017 by WinkAllKerb''

[Ultimate Steve]

I am a nerd.

 

I scored 5080 points at state Academic Decathlon.

[kerbiloid]

14 hours ago, Ultimate Steve said:

I scored 5080 points at state Academic Decathlon.

Running and jumping for the University team?

Maybe you would also try Academic Football.

[WinkAllKerb'']

when: what we see from here may be related from what's around everywhere but not what from really is around loccally, it's mostly about light source around and there concentration origin 3d from around and each source sparse vectoring diffuse ...

Edited March 6, 2017 by WinkAllKerb''

[Ogcorp Squirrel]

I love this thread

you know your a nerd when your games folder consits of *ahem*

Doom 1 and 2 (And brutal doom)

Marathon (the bungie shooter trilogy for the mac)

Wing commander 1, 2 , Armada, and Privateer

Unreal Tournament GOTY

and the only modern games

KSP (OBVIOUSLY)

Besiege

(and also in your spare time you either chat with your friend debating weather the Dralthi IV would beat a tie fighter or if an Arrow V can beat an A wing).

[kerbiloid]

6 hours ago, Ogcorp Squirrel said:

Doom 1 and 2

Why play this new-fashioned stuff, when we have Pacman and Wolfenstein.

[Ogcorp Squirrel]

15 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

Why play this new-fashioned stuff, when we have Pacman and Wolfenstein.

Don't forget Star Raiders and Defender

[greenTurtle1134]

On 3/1/2017 at 10:13 PM, Ultimate Steve said:

About 80 minutes, same as the others. (By far the best class of the day!) (My school has A days and B days, with 4 classes in each, 8 total)

Short summary of spaceship SHERPA: 2m diameter capsule, 2m tall, tapering to 0.75m. Smaller pressure vessel inside where I would sit. Orbital Power Module which contains retrorockets, antennas, radiators, etc. above main capsule (jettisoned before re-entry). Above that is the LES. The heat shield is made of AVCOAT with a beryllium heat sink behind just in case. The rocket would be two stage kerolox with two or four solid rocket boosters.

Long summary of spaceship SHERPA:

  Hide contents

The capsule has two layers, the pressure vessel and the structural vessel. The pressure vessel is roughly 1.75m by 1m by 1m with some tapering/curving. The walls are made of a structural element I designed called Aluminum Pentacomb (although it's really more of a Hexatruss than a Pentacomb, I just came up with the latter first and the name stuck) which is a triangular web of aluminum struts sandwiched between two sheets of aluminum. The whole structure would be made in sheets 2.4cm thick. The outer layer, the structural vessel, is made of a similar material called Alluminum-Rene Pentacomb, which is the same as APC, but the outer sheet of aluminum is replaced with a sheet of rene 41, a heat resistant alloy used on the Mercury capsule. These two vessels would be supported by a lot of struts, also aluminum.

The Orbital power module is 0.75m in diameter and 0.5m in height and sits on top of the capsule, containing radiators (undersigned), antennas (undersigned as well), cubesat dispensers (I also haven't designed them yet) and retrorockets (you guessed it, undersigned...).

the RCS system would be simple compressed oxygen (the mission would only stay in orbit for a day, I shouldn't need anything more) with four three way thrusters providing full rotational control. The least that I could lose and still have 3 axis control would be 2 out of 12. But I could still roll, then, so the real danger is if I lose a specific 5 thrusters.

I have not designed life support, spacesuits, the ejection seat, parachute, or much else, really.

I briefly touched upon computers and batteries, the computer would be in the pressure vessel and powered by a smaller version of a Tesla battery. The control panel would be old-school switches (because flicking switches is infinitely more satisfying than using a touch screen). I sketched a 1:1 drawing of the control panel. It currently has over 50 switches, and capability for full manual control if needed.

The heat shield would be an outer layer of AVCOAT, the stuff used on the Apollo heat shield. Just in case, there is also a beryllium heat sink behind that.

The empty pressure vessel, structural vessel, and heat shield would weigh about 700kg.

Communication would be provided by two whip antennas on the OPM and one low gain in the unpressurized section, plus a recovery beacon.

There would be three abort modes. Mode one would fire the LES with the horizontal motor (to be used during early launch), Mode two would fire the LES without the sideways motor (late launch), and Mode Three would activate the ejector seat (for use during a parachute failure).

There are two windows so far, the hatch window above my head and the main window in front of my head, which is actually two windows, one in the pressure vessel, one in the structural vessel.

Now, the rocket I haven't designed much yet. The idea was that I'd figure out how much the capsule would weigh and then build a rocket around that with 10km/s of DV (I know I only need ~9.3, but just in case...). Although I don't know many specifics, I know the layout I want it to be: S2 would be kerolox and have some sort of RCS system, S1 would be the same but bigger and with fins, and there would be two or four solid rocket boosters.

 

What are other people doing in STEM, you ask?

Building a racetrack for R/C cars.

Figuring out algorithms for checkers.

Building a CD thrower.

Building a drone.

Designing a website.

Building trebuchets.

Testing different paper airplanes.

Designing better throwing cards.

Designing an anti classroom break in system (the first test of which consisted of tying rope to the door handle and to the teacher's chair...).

 

In each class period I usually get hit with throwing cards at least three times. The drone guy almost kills himself at least once testing a propeller. I get hit by bottle caps at least once (because the people doing the CD thrower are using bottle caps as a small scale test). I usually get hit with paper airplanes as well. And random balls of tape.

On one occasion I had to prove to the drone guy that my space capsule would be aerodynamically stable. So I spent a whole thirty seconds building a cardboard wedge denser at the bottom and dropped it down the 3 story tall gap between the stairwells, upside down. It righted itself.

 

And I love every second of it!

 

You know you're a nerd when you can write all that from memory!

Mod it into KSP maybe? Are you actually building the thing or just designing it?

[Ultimate Steve]

1 hour ago, greenTurtle1134 said:

Mod it into KSP maybe? Are you actually building the thing or just designing it?

Do you have a spare couple million dollars lying around?

Yeah, just designing. But the design is far from done. Although, I have plans to build two scale models (one 1:10 just for looks, one 1:25-ish as a model rocket) of the rocket and have already built the scale model capsule+orbital power module and am currently working on the LES.

I was also planning on building a mockup of the pressure vessel as sort of a simulator, but I doubt I'll get that far before the school year ends.

Great minds think alike - I was planning on modding it into KSP eventually (With RO installed, of course). Maybe even hooking it up to the simulator. But, of course, that requires me actually having a design first...

Actually, I'm considering switching from Kerolox to Methalox for better Isp.

[ProtoJeb21]

You know you're a nerd when you do rampant calculations every day for fun.

Or when you over analyze everything and your overpowered mind comes to the conclusion that infinite water in Minecraft points to a hollowed-out planet controlled in a Hunger Games-style way so that beings of a higher plane of existence can watch futile humans be forced to survive in a hostile environment where even the puppies want to slaughter every two-legged being that wants to pet them as they're running from an army of horrifying walking green time bombs!

*deep breath*

Yeah...I'm done here.

[StrandedonEarth]

When you're the only Grade 11 student among the Grade 12's that your high school sends to the Physics Olympics competition at the nearest university, a few hours drive away (This was over 30 years ago, it just came to mind when today I drove past the hotel we stayed at).

[Q-ver KSP]

when you take so many shortcuts when doing math that your teacher puts the answer wrong even if it is right.