not_a_whiner: (kaidan: hm.)
Kaidan Alenko ([personal profile] not_a_whiner) wrote in [community profile] fandomhigh2013-02-12 01:28 pm
Entry tags:

Industrial Arts, Tuesday

"Starting this week, we're going to be talking about cars," Kaidan said. As anyone could tell, going by the three cars sitting neatly in the center of the Danger Shop. "Just to make a compromise here, since we're kind of spread out time-wise, I'm going to be focusing primarily on early 21st century automotive engineering. If any of you are interested, I'm willing to extend this to vehicles from my time... later."

He cleared his throat. "20th and early 21st century engineering means one thing for cars: combustion engines. The first electric cars are only just inching their way onto the market. Most of 'em still have one of these."

He pulled open the hood of one of the cars and patted the engine. "Internal combustion means you use fuel to cause controlled explosions, generating energy. Most of the engines used in 21st century cars are four-cycle. That means they use a piston and a crankshaft." Stepping back, he called up an image of the inside of a car on his omni-tool, projected big so everyone could see it. "The pistons pass on their linear motion to the crankshaft, which turns it into circular motion, or rotational force. Push that through the axle via the transmission, and the wheels start to turn."

The image shifted to one focused on the engine in particular. "Of course, a lot has to happen to get there. Like those controlled explosions. Now like I said earlier, most combustion engines like this work on a four-cycle system. Those cycles are intake, compression, combustion and exhaust. Every cycle causes the crankshaft to spin - the amount of times one can spin in a minute is what we call RPM. Revolutions per minute." The image began to move. "During the intake, the cylinder the pistons are in pull in fuel from the tank and oxygen from outside. Then the piston moves up to compress the fuel. As the fuel gets compressed, the spark plug activates, causing the fuel to ignite and explode, forcing the piston back down. During the final cycle, what's left gets pumped out of the cylinder."

He shut off the image. "Just to throw a few more words out there, horsepower stands for the amount of force put out by the grand total of pistons in your engine. Torque is the force put out by the crankshaft. Finally, looking at cars, you're going to probably find someone talking about V's - V6s, V8s, and so on. That's a reference to the arrangement of the pistons. Pistons in a V-engine are arranged in - you got it - a V shape. So a V8 has eight pistons arranged in a V."

Kaidan patted the car'ss engine again. "One more thing before I let you take these apart and figure out what everything does," he said. "The displacement of an engine is also important in terms of how much power it puts out. It refers to the amount of volume a piston displaces in the cylinder. You can calculate that by multiplying the width of the cylinder with the length and the amount of pistons. Now, find a partner and crack these things open. Just take a look. Take the engine apart. Calculate the displacement. Write a short piece about what you know about engines."

He paused. "And if you already know a lot about engines," he said, "get cracking on your Battlebot."
justbeingbay: ([neg] outrage while eating)

Re: Sign In

[personal profile] justbeingbay 2013-02-12 04:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Bay Kennish
notagoose: (Default)

Re: Sign In

[personal profile] notagoose 2013-02-13 01:23 am (UTC)(link)
Shane Gooseman

Re: Sign In

[identity profile] monkeymonkeydie.livejournal.com 2013-02-14 01:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Bucky Katt
justbeingbay: ([pos] look how cute i am)

Re: Examine a Car

[personal profile] justbeingbay 2013-02-12 04:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Bay picked a BMW M3, since she'd driven one before. But her maintenance skills didn't go much past changing the oil, so she was beign careful as she prodded under the hood.

Re: Examine a Car

[identity profile] nonelikemesince.livejournal.com 2013-02-12 04:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, of course Anakin was going to start examining the cars, and of course he was going to look vaguely amused and almost-but-not-quite condescending about it. Look at those primitive combustion engines. How cute.

Re: Examine a Car

[identity profile] makemyownway.livejournal.com 2013-02-12 06:44 pm (UTC)(link)
"It's got wheels," Cade snorted. "I want to pat this whole planet on its karking head."

Re: Examine a Car

[identity profile] nonelikemesince.livejournal.com 2013-02-12 06:59 pm (UTC)(link)
"Did you see how low the top speed is, too?" Anakin's voice was slightly muffled, since he was leaning over the front end of the car and poking at hoses.

Re: Examine a Car

[identity profile] makemyownway.livejournal.com 2013-02-12 07:16 pm (UTC)(link)
"Pretty sure a motivated tauntaun could beat it," Cade said uncharitably.

Re: Examine a Car

[identity profile] nonelikemesince.livejournal.com 2013-02-12 07:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, that wasn't terribly fair to the tauntaun, Cade.

"Bet the tauntaun would be more maneuverable." Anakin barely resisted the urge to kick one of the tires, and settled for giving the entire car a baleful look instead.

Re: Examine a Car

[identity profile] makemyownway.livejournal.com 2013-02-12 07:37 pm (UTC)(link)
"Probably smells better too," he added, which wasn't true.

Re: Examine a Car

[identity profile] nonelikemesince.livejournal.com 2013-02-12 07:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Okay, now Anakin gave him a weird look. "I don't think I'd go that far."

Re: Examine a Car

[identity profile] makemyownway.livejournal.com 2013-02-12 08:05 pm (UTC)(link)
"Well, maybe not, but close," Cade replied.

Re: Examine a Car

[identity profile] nonelikemesince.livejournal.com 2013-02-12 08:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Anakin wrinkled his nose. "Ever been inside a sandcrawler?"

There were some smells you just didn't forget.

Re: Examine a Car

[identity profile] makemyownway.livejournal.com 2013-02-12 08:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Cade shuddered. "Once or twice. Smells like Nal Hutta during the wet season."

Re: Examine a Car

[identity profile] nonelikemesince.livejournal.com 2013-02-12 09:25 pm (UTC)(link)
"I'll take your word on that," Anakin said, hoping he wasn't actually turning green at the thought. "Sithspawn, a combustion engine?"

At least it wasn't radioactive, Anakin.

Re: Examine a Car

[identity profile] makemyownway.livejournal.com 2013-02-13 07:40 am (UTC)(link)
"Bet they rub two sticks together to make fire, too," Cade commented with a snort, leaning in to get a better look at the engine.

Re: Examine a Car

[identity profile] nonelikemesince.livejournal.com 2013-02-13 04:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Anakin snickered, then tapped a finger against the engine. "Think Kaidan would give extra credit for upgrading one of these?"

Please, like he needed the motivation of extra credit. He just thought it would be fun.

Re: Examine a Car

[identity profile] makemyownway.livejournal.com 2013-02-13 07:41 pm (UTC)(link)
"Kark extra credit," Cade snorted. "We should get a medal."

Re: Examine a Car

[identity profile] nonelikemesince.livejournal.com 2013-02-13 07:44 pm (UTC)(link)
"Or get to keep the car afterward." Anakin, no.

Re: Examine a Car

[identity profile] makemyownway.livejournal.com 2013-02-13 07:55 pm (UTC)(link)
"Oooh."

Cade, also no.

Re: Examine a Car

[identity profile] nonelikemesince.livejournal.com 2013-02-13 08:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Anakin reached under the hood to fiddle with a hose. "That's probably a bad idea, isn't it?"

Note that 'bad idea' did not necessarily precede 'and thus to be discouraged.'

Re: Examine a Car

[identity profile] makemyownway.livejournal.com 2013-02-13 08:14 pm (UTC)(link)
"I think it sounds all right."

Which should be a warning sign, yes.
ext_1340895: (driving || motorbike)

Re: Examine a Car

[identity profile] upmysleeve.livejournal.com 2013-02-12 08:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Did it count as 'examining' the Peugeot's engine if Ace was dividing her time between trying not to drool on it, figuring out how to make it go faster, and wondering if you could rig it up to spurt repulsion gel out of the tailpipe?
notagoose: (Default)

Re: Examine a Car

[personal profile] notagoose 2013-02-13 01:27 am (UTC)(link)
Goose had done some basic tinkering with cars back at longshot but that was the only real knowledge that he had about them since cars on a whole weren't that common in his time. At this point he was just going to look at the different cars before deciding on one to work with.

Re: Examine a Car

[identity profile] monkeymonkeydie.livejournal.com 2013-02-14 02:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Bucky picked a car completely at random and tried to hotwire it.

For a definition of "hotwire" that included "bashing the steering column with a tire iron until the plastic fell off, ripping off some wires at random, and then falling asleep on the seat".

Re: Write a Report

[identity profile] nonelikemesince.livejournal.com 2013-02-12 04:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Anakin's essay was long, methodical, and filled with recommendations for things he'd do to improve on these engine designs. Actually, if you took those recommendations out the essay would be half of its current length. Take out everything he'd written down as seeming weird and it would be a third of that length.