Apparently, the Chemical Sciences building here at the U of A is being remodeled, rebuilt, improved upon, built again, or otherwise constructed. Well, each month “Field Engineer Dave” asks students an engineering question about the project, and the student that answers correctly gets $100–my tuition went to this? Anyway–since my current worth is $3 and a meal plan, I could definitely use $100, but I know jack diddly squat about engineering. I tried to figure out the question on my own, but I can’t begin to understand what it’s asking. Could anyone perhaps suggest where to start on this, at least? I can probably do a little research on the building and find some numbers to crunch or values to approximate, but as it stands now I simply cannot fathom how I would begin to guess this. I could just throw in a random number, of course, but where’s the fun in that?
Here’s the question:
“The Chemical Sciences Building is an island surrounded by underground utility tunnels which supply major mechanical, electrical, and telecommunications services to existing structures. To bridge over these tunnels, the Design Team engineered a series of Grade Beams (GB’s) to distribute our building loads around the tunnels. For November '04’s Grand Prize of $100 dollars (sic), how many tons of reinforcing steel is being used in the construction of these grade beams?”
(Pictures here and here.)
Since I’m sure you’d like to know, here’s what I plan to do with the prize money:
- Spend $20-$40 on alcohol. I owe a few people in this regard. And I also want to get drunk with (but not take advantage of!) a girl I like who is a fan of responsible partying, as I am. (I’ve seen the engineering students, too. Lots of hard work and hard liquor go into that degree program.)
- Spend some indeterminate amount on taking same girl out.
- Renew my SDMB subscription.
- Send some to whatever kind soul set me down the path to the right answer, if they so desire.
- Put the rest in savings.