Overview

Mathematical prototypes represent a concept’s ability to accomplish a task or meet a requirement by using relative equations from sciences like physics.

Process

1. List all the interactions between your concept and the environment
2. Use relevant equations to quantify these interactions by identifying all fixed variables and solving for the remaining free variables

My Experience

My Praxis II team utilized mathematical prototypes to see the force needed by a hydraulic to push a plate down and submerge buoyant ice.

Figure 1: Initial calculations for our hydraulic plate modelled as a beam. Relevant errors and their consequences have been annotated.

Our initial calculation failed to account for rotation caused by the ice on the end of the rod (45kN). As a result, the force needed for the hydraulic was underestimated. The challenge with this calculation is the result seems large enough to be reasonable so the result was never checked. This mistake was only caught after being reviewed by Professor Carrick. As an engineering student, I am biased to believe theoretical calculations as fact, but the consequences for being inaccurate are severe. For real-world engineering challenges, there is no answer at the end of a textbook, and therefore systems must be put in place to prevent errors. Being humble and admitting you may be wrong is challenging, but is important to uphold my values of intellectual honesty.

Checklist