Dakotah+Howard





**Interchangeable Parts Discovered: 1798** While not the most famous invention by Eli Whitney, the development of interchangeable parts allowed for drastic changes in our society and culture than even the cotton gin. Whitney developed interchangeable parts in order for unskilled workers to make products that had required expertise. Whitney achieved this by using different machines to craft multiple of the small parts and then combining these parts into a working product. Thus, Whitney forever changed how products were manufactured. By using interchangeable parts, products could be made faster and multiple more could be made at once. In addition, anyone could use the machines, eliminating the need for skilled labor. Whitney’s inventions have had and continue to have a major influence on both industry and our society and culture in general.

King Corn Reflection

While watching the video King Corn, I learned a lot of information that I did not previously know about the role that corn plays in not only our nutritional system, but also in many other aspects of our day to day lives. First of all, the main idea behind King Corn was for two friends, Ian and Curtis, to take a trip to Greene, Iowa in order to grow an acre of corn and to learn more about the role that corn plays in our daily lives. The idea to move out to Iowa was due to an experience that they had when they had their hair analyzed to see what their body consisted of. This analysis led to the discovery that their bodies were made of carbon, specifically carbon made from corn. They then went on to see how corn is grown in outrageously large quantities in order to not only feed people, but to primarily be used for products such as animal feed and corn syrup. Next, there were a lot of things that I learned over the course of this video. Primarily, I had no clue of the scale that corn is being grown in places such as Iowa. According to the video, corn that has been genetically modified to grow close together is being grown in the trillions each year. I also learned a lot about the affects that corn has when it is fed to animals. According to the video and class discussion, corn feed allows animals such as cows and chickens to grow much larger and much faster than they could off of simple grass feeding. However, this also comes with consequences. The corn also causes a lot of health problems with the animals which caused them to die a lot sooner than they ever normally should. In order to combat this, the animals are fed massive amounts of antibiotics in order to keep them alive long enough to be slaughtered for food production. Finally, I found this video very interesting. I was amazed at how corn is so instrumental in so much of our lives, from actual corn consumption, to all the uses of corn syrup and corn feed. It was also interesting to see how corn production is such a large part of life in northern areas such as Iowa as opposed to what we see around here. Overall, King Corn was a extremely interesting video that taught me a lot of information that I had never know about the role of corn in America.

Bridge Design Problem



I chose to make my bridge with a warren style truss. I decided to use this truss because I was trying to find a balance between structual strength and simplicity of design. I wanted my bridge to be strong but to have a low number of joints because I expected the joints to give under weight first. In addition to the warren truss, I also chose to make the bridge low to the ground in order to give it more stability and strength. I was not able to test my bridge, however, I expect that my bridge would have done fairly well, probably holding around eighty pounds.