The sinking ice shanty and the beauty of engineers putting useful knowledge and skill to useless use (679 hits)
Category: GeneralRating: 2 on 15 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (View user info) at 2008-03-14 10:48:56 EDT
This review:
"Submitted by skrapmetal (user info) at 2008-03-13 23:19:14 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
I ran this pic through my Linear Photogrammic Calculator. It uses optical clues in the photo to deduce relative dimensions. from those and average human physical data, we can estimate weights. According to it, this guy's mantits are larger than his head, and if he's 6'-0", his legs alone weigh 261 pounds.
Under no circumstances is that acceptable. "
From this post: http://www.ubersite.com/m/115548, spawned this comment that turned into far too long a comment:
This review is fantastic. skrap obviously has access to some entertaining toys and is smart enough to use them, even better, I'm sure he uses them for useful purposes all the time. But, here he is using his knowledge, skill, and fun toys in a completely useless and almost dumb way purely out of curiosity and in the interests of entertainment.
I think that's beautiful. It seems that this sort of exercise is most often performed by engineers or it could just be that such frivolous use of intelligence is more apparent when an engineer does it because of the specific nature of their conclusions.
A friend of mine, also an engineer, tells a story of watching two ice fishermen trying to rescue their ice shanty at the end of the season from his front window that looks out over a large lake here in Madison. You see, these two buffoons had left the pop up shanty sitting on the ice for just a little too long and it had broke through and was now floating in a hole shaped to fit it.
The ice fisherman decided first to try to pull it out themselves. It was, after all, designed to have its own sled on the bottom so they apparently decided they should just be able to pull it up out of its hole and back onto the ice. So they began pulling, and pushing, and rocking the shanty until finally they must have gotten tired. My engineer friend surveyed their progress, the shanty had sunk about a foot and he began to get excited at the prospect of getting to watch it sink into the lake while his two unwitting entertainers struggled to save it.
The ice fishermen, also noting its lower position in the water seemed to feel the matter more urgent now and asked a couple other fishermen on the ice to help them. They began to push and pull and rock the shanty some more, trying again to dislodge it from its impending doom. Sadly to no avail. The shanty definitely seemed to be taking on water and their efforts had only hastened this process. The shanty was now even lower in the hole.
My engineer friend began calculating and based on the dimensions of the shanty and its position in the water decided that it must have well over 600 pounds of water in it now. He looked at the assembled man power, the condition of the ice, and concluded that the shanty would not be rescued from its fate and would in fact sink within the hour. Having come to this conclusion he grabbed his video camera and tripod and set it up to catch the hilarity on film.
The ice fisherman had also seemingly come to the conclusion that things were not in a good way and were now trying to bail the water out of the shanty but having nowhere to put it all they really accomplished was stirring up the water and making the ice around the shanty hole even wetter and slipperier, while the shanty continued sitting in its low position in the water.
The ice was obviously already thin and there were all these people around this big hole filled with a sinking shanty and they were taking water out of the shanty and putting it on the thin ice around them and my friend grew even more excited at the prospect of watching a bunch of silly ice fishermen breaking through and experiencing even more difficulty and even better he was going to have it on tape.
It was at this point in the story that my engineer friend went into a whole bunch of calculations about how much water was now in the shanty and how much he estimated those around the shanty to weigh and how thick the ice was and how much the two snow mobiles now pulling up would add to the whole equation.
He could hear the ice cracking and booming as ice is wont to do when put under pressure and he continued to watch this spectacle as the ice fishermen held conference around the shanty hole.
The snow mobiles then backed up and hooked up tow ropes to the shanty and my friend did some quick calculations to try to figure out if they could free the shanty from the water and decided that with all the stress and commotion on the ice it was more likely that more than the shanty would be getting wet. Some of this was based on his estimation that the shanty now held over 900 pounds of water and was bobbing dangerously in the water ready to succumb to the water and sink to its grave.
The snow mobiles began to pull and the shanty leaned but would not come out of its hole because so much of it was underwater. The ice fishermen began to jump on the ice and he could see that there was movement and that it did get them closer but still the shanty stayed in the water. The ice fishermen continued jumping on the ice in unison and began pushing down on the shanty to get it bobbing up and down while the snow mobiles continued to pull.
The ice fishermen kept jumping, bobbing the shanty and the snow mobiles pulled, until, finally, the shanty suddenly popped up onto the ice. My friend was saddened that they had accomplished their goal. His footage was still amusing but would have been so much better had it involved mishap instead of success. He ran through his calculations again and decided they were sound but there was one thing he hadn't counted on that resulted in his prediction not coming to fruition, the ice fishermen.
Ice fishermen are patient mother fuckers. Ice fishermen endure shitty weather to sit on the ice and wait for a fish they can't see to come bite the bait they submerged into water they can't survey. Ice fishermen are often the guys who can jerry rig things when something needs a temporary fix. Ice fishermen are not always the most intelligent people in the world, they do, after all, sit on the ice in brutal weather to catch fish.
Taking all of that into account he realized that it was sheer tenacity and bravado that allowed these men to rescue their shanty. They worked and worked ignoring the fact that the ice had already opened up to swallow their shanty. They added more men to the weak area in sheer defiance of the fact that it had already opened up to swallow their shanty. They added two heavy snow mobiles to the same area ignoring the fact that ice breaks open under too much weight. Their bravado gave them the opportunity to use their honed patience to push pull and struggle with the shanty until they came out victorious if only due to sheer luck.
While my friend did not necessarily wish ill on these men he was disappointed that he did not capture footage of a hilarious mishap because these fools waited just a little too long to retrieve their shanty.
I can't relate all the calculations and considerations he offered to support his initial conclusions about the fate of the shanty but they were highly entertaining. These calculations were even funnier because we knew he had the capacity to fairly accurately make the conclusions he had. The story was made all the funnier by his consternation at having watched this whole episode without the reward of something sinking or someone falling through the ice.
So I salute all people who take knowledge and put it to completely useless uses and ask that you continue to entertain yourselves and us. Oh, by the way? if you haven't already you might want to pull your shantys off the ice now, the thaw is on and it won't be long before the ice no longer holds.
User Reviews
Submitted by HellRazer (user info) at 2008-03-15 20:13:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
This makes me want to ride a snowmobile. Damn those things are fun.
Submitted by BLITZKREIG_BOB (user info) at 2008-03-14 23:07:44 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by skrapmetal (user info) at 2008-03-14 12:39:11 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I am +2ing this because it's an excellent post, because of the name drop, because you kindly said I have intelligence, and because, although the described concepts are valid and are regularly applied in my line of work, there's no such thing as a "Linear Photogrammic Calculator". I made it up.
By way of apology for allowing you be misled, when I get back from Denver I'll use my $16,000 IR Bolometer (or Thermal Imaging Camera) to post a naked camwhore. Not really. No one wants to see that. But I do have the camera. Here's a pic I took while my house was under construction. You can see where the insulation is installed in the corner but not in the rest of the ceiling by the surface temperature of the ceiling interior. As you may imagine, my builder hates me. http://www.ratpackcycles.com/musicroomceilingir1.jpg
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I remember back in college, we actually had to calculate btu loss from pictures like that for an HVAC design class. The equation, along with all of the assumptions, was over one notebook page long.
I can scale aerial or satellite photogrammetry into AutoCad and get dimensions and elevations within +/- a foot. If you know a few other factors, you can estimate the weight of something, so the above statement is not entirely bullshit.
Take a picture of a fart with the IR camera instead of naked camwhoring.
Submitted by BeforeEmily (user info) at 2008-03-14 18:41:22 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
For the linkwhorage!
Submitted by skrapmetal (user info) at 2008-03-14 17:54:16 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
It's true. I kill at Balderdash, Boggle, and Scrabble.
Submitted by rob_berg (user info) at 2008-03-14 15:28:26 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Nice.
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2008-03-14 12:51:11 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
haha, that's fine, you put it together well enough to make it sound feasible and inspired me to relate this actual true tale. liar.
haha, poor builder..... that's what he gets for cutting corners though I'd guess you're one of very few who caught him at it.
Submitted by skrapmetal (user info) at 2008-03-14 12:39:11 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I am +2ing this because it's an excellent post, because of the name drop, because you kindly said I have intelligence, and because, although the described concepts are valid and are regularly applied in my line of work, there's no such thing as a "Linear Photogrammic Calculator". I made it up.
By way of apology for allowing you be misled, when I get back from Denver I'll use my $16,000 IR Bolometer (or Thermal Imaging Camera) to post a naked camwhore. Not really. No one wants to see that. But I do have the camera. Here's a pic I took while my house was under construction. You can see where the insulation is installed in the corner but not in the rest of the ceiling by the surface temperature of the ceiling interior. As you may imagine, my builder hates me. http://www.ratpackcycles.com/musicroomceilingir1.jpg
Submitted by ilikesteak (user info) at 2008-03-14 12:32:30 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
This reminds me of a radio sketch I heard once.
Submitted by DudeThatsBOSH (user info) at 2008-03-14 11:28:27 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
that pic is bosh.. makes me want to go ice fishing.
all the ponds around here are melted to the point where they're unsafe, though.
oh well, bass will be biting soon.
Submitted by Crystle (user info) at 2008-03-14 11:24:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
hehe
AND no rainbows!! bonus!
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2008-03-14 11:16:00 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I agree, he WAS robbed and all because of the tenacity of a few men hell bent on rescuing thier equipment.
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2008-03-14 11:10:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Excellent post.
Submitted by forensicgirl3 (user info) at 2008-03-14 11:03:31 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
This brought a tear to mine eye.
I love science and everything about it. Not only that, as this post illustrates, science can also be a comedy GOLDMINE!
I mourn for your friend. Engineers are a special breed. They do so much for us. I firmly believe that your friend was ENTITLED to see the shanky sink into an icy grave, ice fishermen fall through the ice, more people falling through the ice as they attempt to help, snow plows that are put in peril, etc.
ROBBED! HE WAS ROBBED!
But......I must say......you notice that with all the calculations, air tight maths, engineering magic......in the end it all came down to........yes, that's right........HUMAN BEHAVIOR......which is MY area of study.
Human behavior is a wild card and can significantly alter even the most precise calculations.
That's why we all need to work together! Engineers and shrinks. For the betterment of all humankind and......................
for the shenanigans.
I must go and meditate on this beautiful story.
Submitted by CaptainThorns (user info) at 2008-03-14 10:57:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2008-03-14 10:51:49 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
this sinking ice shanty thing? does happen more frequently than it should. these guys leave them out there counting on the ice to hold only to find them sinking or sunk when they return. I especially enjoyed the tale of the ice fishermen on lake michigan that had to be rescued by the coast gaurd when the ice they were sitting on broke free from the rest of the ice and carried them and thier four wheelers out into the lake. that's good stuff man.