If you have a missing homework grade, or a low one you want raised, we are offering some extra credits. Up to 7 homework makeups are now available. One credit is one homework assignment. It should take a similar amount of time, effort, and care.
1) Must be emailed by midnight May 6. (1 homework credit) This offer remains valid until 4 days after this posting is removed from this WWW page. Estimated time 3-6 hours. If it takes you less, spend the time critiqueing the handout or doing and writing up a different example truss.
We are thinking of adding to TAM 202 some engineering software of a type that is very often used in industry to do analysis of the type you are learning in this class (ANSYS). We have a trial tutorial. Do this tutorial on the ACCEL facility above the engineering library, mark suggested changes and problems with it, and hand in a description of what you learned. Hand this in to Rajesh Bhaskaran <rb88@cornell.edu> (contact him about how to hand this in).
2) Must be emailed by midnight May 6 (up to 6 homework credits). This offer remains valid until 4 days after this posting is removed from this WWW page. Estimated time: 5 hours each. Each time you do a tutorial do a fresh download, in case the software has been updated.
Professor Paul Steif at Carnegie Mellon has written 6 computer tutorials that apply to the Strength of Materials parts of this course. You may well find these useful for studying even if you do not do them for extra credit. Several students have commented positively about them. They are being developed, as funded by the National Science Foundation, to help students like you in a class like this. For now, those doing this for credit are helping to improve the tutorial.
a) Download the software (for PCs only, sorry no MACs) and install it: http://www.me.cmu.edu/stressalyzer/.
b) Read the Readme.txt file and manual (they are short).
c) There are 6 modules in total. You can run a module by starting the main program ctwinx.exe and then opening one of the .ctb files, as explained in the Readme.txt file.
d) Spend 3.0 hours of concentrated work on each of the 6 modules you choose to use. Use the Log file, getting as far as you can get. You can stop and resume work and still have it logged. This is useful if you get stuck since you have to get one problem right before moving on to the next. Log your name in the form Smith_John. Make sure you save your log file in a safe place.
e) Spend another 1 hour switching to the review mode and looking at and trying other problems. The review mode is different from the log mode in that you can jump from one problem to another. You can work on the problems, but they are not logged. Note: you can use review mode to take an initial look at the various problems in a module and decide if that module is of interest to you.
f) For each module for which you want credit, email to Paul Steif <steif@andrew.cmu.edu> with *Subject: Cornell 202
*Attach your log file as an email attachment. (be sure to leave the file you send with its original name, e.g., axial.log, different for each module)
*In the text of your email write a thoughtful essay about the specific strengths and weaknesses of the module as a learning tool, and how beneficial it was overall to your learning.
The six modules are:
1.Axial: tension and compression of bars, something like homeworks 8 and 9
2Twist: torsion, like homework 10
3.Bend: V and M diagrams
4.Deflec: deflection of beams
5.Load3D: loadings (bending, twisting, and stretching) and stress in 3-D
6.Trans: figuring out the stress on crooked surfaces
Write to TAM 202 Staff, or write
directly to us (alr3) if you want an answer.
Send ANONYMOUS comments if you want to tell us something but don't want
us to know who you are
(and to which we cannot respond to you).