Saturday, March 04, 2000
Teens solve engineering riddle
They're first ever to manage UK light bulb trick
BY ANDREA TORTORA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HEBRON — Two toy cars, some light bulbs and a lot of higher math have earned two Conner High School seniors a place of honor in Kentucky's mechanical engineering community.
Mike Kramer and Todd Smith successfully designed a radio-controlled car agile enough to maneuver through a maze, pick up a light bulb and thread it into a socket to make it glow.
They are the first two students to complete the task in the history of the University of Kentucky's Engineering Day competition. They won $500.
Now these two Burlington 18-year-olds plan to improve on their time for next year's competition, when they can enter as college students. Both men will attend UK. Both plan to major in engineering.
“We plan to tinker with it some more, and see if we can make some improvements,” Mr. Kramer said.
The car grabs the top of a light bulb with a cup fixed to the bucket of a front-end loader. The bulb sticks to a substance in the cup. The cup is attached to a motor on the car so that it can be spun. Students align the bulb's threaded end with a socket placed horizontally and three inches off the ground. Then they flip the spin switch and screw in the bulb until it lights.
The students credit their calculus teacher, Joanne Estenfelder, with getting them interested in the contest. Mrs. Estenfelder said the two were determined to win first place this year.
They placed third last year. Mr. Smith said they improved their design based on last year's mistakes.
They found that a wider car with separate motors for each set of wheels was more mobile than a smaller version. And they learned that sticky gum used for some mouse traps is an excellent way to attach light bulbs to the concave threading mechanism.
The men spent $50 on their car. They built it with parts from a Tyco Super Scorcher and a Tonka front-end loader, a Futaba Conquest airplane remote control, a control from one of the toy trucks, a 7.2-volt battery, a 6-volt battery and lots of AA batteries.
The car's performance wasn't perfect. It took two tries to get the bulb to shine.
“The battery went dead at the very end,” Mr. Smith said. “We had just enough power to screw in the light bulb.”
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