Silly Speed: What if production cars continue to get faster at the same rate?

This paper aims to quantify the trend of the top speed of production cars and extrapolate this information to make predictions of possible speeds in the future. The trend obtained predicts that production cars will be able to break the sound barrier in the year 2253, and taken to the greatest extreme predicts light speed capable production cars in the year 310493610. The paper will aim to discuss why this prediction is unrealistic, but also entertain the idea of it being true, by estimating the power output of these hypothetical cars. The power output of a supersonic production car was calculated to be 20486.9 horsepower

Should the laser weapons in Fallout have recoil?

The post-apocalyptic world of the Fallout series features a wide variety of technologically advanced weaponry, including laser weapons. This paper aims to establish whether or not these weapons should recoil upon firing as they do in the game. This will be done via two methods, the first of which is based off in-game damage values and comparison to the real-life counterparts of the in-game ballistic weaponry. The other method is through the determination of the vaporisation energy of the largest creature it is capable of disintegrating. It was determined that the laser weapons should not have perceivable recoil based upon their in-game damage. However, when considering their ability to disintegrate targets, the recoil was calculated to be of such large magnitude that the weapons would be unusable

Lean on Me – Can Bill Withers stay true to his word?

This paper aims to calculate the amount of force that Bill Withers would have to exert in order to support the people that have listened, or are listening to his song, Lean on Me, based upon the analytics from YouTube and Spotify. This will consider two scenarios: one in which everyone who has ever listened to his song leaned at him all at once, and another where all the concurrent listeners are leaning on him at any given time. These will be modelled through the use of component forces. The force that Bill Withers would have to exert when everyone leans on him at once, is calculated to equal 2.27x1010 N. The total force for the listeners at any given time is determined to be 19560 N

Analyzing Flash X-Ray Machine Diagnostics

The Cygnus Dual Beam Radiographic Facility consists of two flash x-ray machines, Cygnus 1 and 2. The seamless performance of these machines is critical to the maintenance of the United States stockpile of nuclear weapons. Since these SubCritical experiments cost about $104 million when something malfunctions millions of dollars are lost. As a result, it is imperative to assess the performance of the machine from diagnostics collected by the different sensors. Its performance is measured by the level of radiation dose a shot obtains. Utilizing exploratory data analysis, interesting trends were found and a 74.1% level of correctness was achieved when predicting dosage

The repeatability of evolution; colour pattern control in Heliconius butterflies

Heliconius butterflies are found across the neo-tropics, with bright aposematic colour patterns. These Müllerian mimics show striking colour pattern convergence across species, while paradoxically showing striking diversity within species. Thus Heliconius wing patterns have become an excellent system for understanding the repeatability of evolution. This work has identified a number of genes that appear to be involved in colour pattern control across species, such as optix and cortex, which respectively control red and yellow pattern elements. However, this work has only looked at the genetic basis of colour pattern in a small number of species, and primarily focusses on just two; H. melpomene and H. erato. I first use a population genomics approach to try to identify whether optix controls the hindwing rays phenotype in two poorly studied species; H. demeter and H. aoede. I identify both divergence associated with colour pattern at this optix, as well as another putative colour pattern control locus in H. aoede, the ommochrome pathway gene cardinal. Further, I use Quantitative trait loci analysis to explore the genetics of colour pattern in H. melpomene, confirming WntA as the gene controlling the ‘broken band’ phenotype and I identify a locus associated with red-orange pigmentation, while also exploring the role of minor effect loci in quantitative colour pattern variation. Finally, I use the natural diversity at two hybrid zones, in conjunction with phylogenetic discordance at mimicry loci, to identify putative regulatory enhancers associated with colour pattern shifts, investigate introgression across species at this fine genetic scale, and the possible role of colour pattern introgression in Heliconius speciation. This work reveals both interesting cases of convergent genetic evolution, independent genetic evolution and introgression, showing that a variety of evolutionary processes have shaped Heliconius mimicry across species

Our Wild: Architecture Catalyzing Ecological Revitalization of the Potomac

As the global environment becomes increasingly unstable, our role in the ecosystem has become more critical than ever. By becoming stewards of the environment we can ensure a healthy world for future generations of humans and wildlife alike. This thesis will focus on the Potomac River ecosystem and how a center for conservation and wildlife rehabilitation can engage and educate the public with the ecosystem they rely upon so heavily. Architecture defines our physical environment yet its influence is not bound to humanity, rather it has a defining role and impact on the greater ecosystem. Developing a design that works to remediate its site while simultaneously instilling a sense of environmental empathy on a communal scale can successfully begin the imperative process of revitalizing the Potomac River

Analyzing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: The Country\u27s Aspects of Growth

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam, also known as Vietnam, is a developing country in Southeast Asia. After French colonists left Vietnam, the 1954 Geneva Accords divided Vietnam into the Communist North and anti-Communist South. However, the country was reunited as a Communist state because of the North\u27s victory in the Vietnam War in 1975, and the Communist Part of Vietnam has become the only official political party since then. The data of the World Bank in 2017 indicates that Vietnam is a lower middle-income country. Despite that, the country has had a substantial economic growth and development since the Đổi Mới economic reform initiated in 1986. The reform tried to transfer the country from a centrally-planned economy towards a market economy. Even though the economy is not completely free-market oriented, it has made great progress along the way, and the transition has changed Vietnam from one of the world\u27s poorest countries to where it stands today