Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Material and sustainability

Different types of natural materials on the market:
Stainless steel
- Aluminum
- Brass
Glass
Rubber
Teak wood
Mahogany wood
Lumber wood
Timber wood
HDPE plastics
LDPE plastics

Wood Metals Plastics Others
Teak wood Brass HDPE Rubber
Timber wood Stainless steel LDPE Glass
Mahogany Aluminum
Lumber
Sources:http://greennature.com/article2158.html, http://www.essortment.com/all/wherecanfindi_rqep.htm

Properties of the materials

Stainless steel- less likely to rust, strong.

Aluminum- good corrosion resistance, low density, high strength-to-weight ratio, lightweight.

Brass- high in strength

Glass- Fragile, waterproof, firm
Rubber- flexible, strong, waterproof, floats in water
Teak wood- strong, hard, floats in water
Timber wood- strong, hard, floats in water
Mahogany wood- strong, hard, floats in water
Lumber- strong, hard, floats in water
HDPE plastic- Strong, waterproof
LDPE plastic- Strong, waterproof

Stainless steel- chromium, nickel and molybdenum (Source:www.bluescopesteel.com/about-bluescope-steel/.../properties-of-steel)
Aluminum- bauxite (Source:http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_aluminium_made_up_of_and_is_it_renewable_or_non_renewable_resource)
Brass- 70% copper, 30% zinc (SOurce: www.blurtit.com/q5516317.html)
Glass- 72 percent silica (from sand), about 13 percent sodium oxide (from soda ash), about 11 percent calcium oxide (from limestone), and about 4 percent minor ingredients (Source: http://www.texasglass.com/glass_facts/composition_of_Glass.htm)
Rubber- rubber sap and other chemicals
Teak wood- wood
Mahogany wood- wood
Lumber wood- wood
Timber wood- wood
HDPE plastics- plastic
LDPE plastics- plastic
(BY JEREMY)


definition of sustainability:
~able to be maintained at a certain rate (From Macbook dashboard dictionary)
~the property of being sustainable (From wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn)
~Sustainability is the capacity to endure (From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainability)

~ In conclusion, Sustainability means to sustain, to continue the work, not failing or stopping.


Sustainable products are those products providing environmental, social and economic benefits while protecting public health, welfare, and environment over their full commercial cycle, from the extraction of raw materials to final disposition. An example would be Sustainable forest. It is like that you divide a forest into 7 parts and first clear area 1 then plant new plants. the next year, clear the 2nd area and plant new plants. Continue this and after the seven year, the first year's plants are grown and you can repeat the cycle again. (From http://www.sustainableproducts.com/susproddef.html and my own reading from previous experience...)

Sustainable environment is an environment in which all of the plants, animals, and other forms of life in it are able to live. If organisms can thrive, get their own food and water, and inhabit their own shelters, then the environment has provided resources for at least one population of organisms, making the environment sustainable.
An Example would be: a primary forest. The animals living inside can live peacefully and can thrive.
(BY QI REN)

Signing off,
Tshin QI Ren

p.s.( Mitchel was busy with the product thinking... But he did help a bit in each part...)

Friday, February 12, 2010

Environment---Light pollution

Light pollution could be said to pose a little problem to others. But in reality, they cause a real problem, indirectly. http://mind42.com/pub/mindmap?mid=b45d4348-100b-4913-aee4-1e2e020e8b9e the following link is a mindmap about Light pollution. Hope you will learn more about Light pollution.

There are serveral causes of light pollution. If you had looked at the mindmap above, you would know that poor built artificial light cause the problem too. As there are lots of artificial-light, we need to find a specific place to focus on. There are a lot of types of lights built. Example: Street light, Traffic light, housing lights.

In common sense,(cause i could not find any proof) there are more street light than any kind of other lights outdoor. Furthermore, the light indoor are mostly pointed downwards so they do not pose such a big problem. But look at the picture of the street light:


Only the top part is covered and the sides are not.

Through all this, My team decided to focus on streetlight of Light pollution.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

P.I.E.S!!!

Our group discussed about the stroller and P.I.E.S of some public transport. The following is our discussion:

Stroller: Emotion/Social/Physical/Intellectual Needs
Reason: The parents and the baby needs to feel safe and they can thus spend more family times together outside.(e.g. strolling in the park) The baby would be shaded from the sun and he/she can learn more things by looking about.

~waiting for a bus at a bus stop:
(P) Protection from the weather
(I) Selling Magazine and newspapers so that others can read them and learn more about the current affairs.
(E) People line up to prevent anyone falling out onto the road and thus they will feel safer.
(S) People can communicate/do things with their friends or relatives while waiting for the bus


~waiting train in a railway station
(P) Protection from the weather
(I) Selling Magazine and newspapers so that others can read them and learn more about the current affairs.
(E) Have doors that will open upon the arrival of the train so that no accident like people falling onto the track would happen
(S) People can communicate/do things with their friends or relatives while waiting for the train


~waiting for a plane at an airport
(P) Have cafes for food and drinks and protection from the weather
(I) Internet access, bookshops and game stores and selling Magazine and newspapers so that others can read them and learn more about the current affairs.
(E) People sending them off at the airport and the airlock will only open when the airplane comes so that no one would accidentally fall through the walk path and drop onto the land.
(S) People can communicate/do things with their friends or relatives while waiting to board the airplane

Signing off,
Tshin Qi Ren, Mitchel Goh, Jeremy

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

20/1/2010
Last week's notes: Pollution of environment.
- Factories and vehicles emitting greenhouse gases causes acid rain, which leads to water and soil
pollution.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Environment

Environment:

*Means to us: ~the surrounding, or the nature
*In the Net: ~the surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal or plant lives or operates.
~The natural world as a whole or in a particular geographical area. esp: as affected by human activity

URL: dashboard of Macbook Pro 13 inch dictionary

Done by: Jeremy, Tshin Qi Ren, Mitchel Goh

Define Art, Design, Media and Technology

ADMT means:

*To us: ~designing products to help the society live a better life
~learning more about technology and doing design on our laptop, just like art and craft but to design a product
~subject to help you be innovative and let you build the products


*In the web: ~ it is a subject that encourages us to develope innovative ways of thinking, to experiment and create products in a wide range of media

p.s.I could not remember the URL and this information was done in school... Sorry...

Team members: Jeremy, Tshin Qi Ren, Mitchel Goh