Prepare a report on one of the following. The main purpose of the report is to communicate your ideas to other people---there should be enough information so that others can duplicate your work. Use graphics, photographs, etc. where appropriate to better explain your ideas and the results. State your assumptions and justify your answers.

2008 Olympic 100 meters

Plot velocity, acceleration, and jerk vs. time for Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell, and Walter Dix in the 2008 Olympic 100 meters final. What time would Bolt have run if he didn't slow down? Make a prediction what the world record will be on December 31, 2040.

Long jump vs. 100 meters

Why does the 100 meters record get broken more frequently than the long jump record?

Energy needed for swimming

How many kilowatt-hours did Michael Phelps expend setting his 2008 Olympic record in the 100 meter butterfly?

Tennis racket vs. arm

Why can people serve tennis balls faster than throwing them? Pretend you're a mad scientist and prepare a report on how to design an athelete that can throw a tennis ball faster than anyone else. Compare atheletes from basketball, baseball, discus, javelin, and weight lifting before making a recommendation.

Energy needed for transportation

What is the energy needed to move 50,000 carats of carrots from Kennedy Space Center to Edwards Air Force Base using a 2008 Chevrolet Corvette, 2008 smart fortwo car, Amtrak train, bicycle, Boeing 747, Lafayette CityBus bus, Segway i2, and space shuttle? Assume there are roads and train tracks that take the shortest route between the two.

Optimal number of refrigerators

Each person wants to drink cold water. They each have a water bottle that only they use. Between 8:00am--noon they take their water battle out of a refrigerator and drink all the water in it. Between 1:00pm--5:00pm they fill their water bottle and put it back in the refrigerator. Two people will never be at the refrigerator at the same time. Given that there are p people, it costs c amount of energy to cool the water bottle, it costs k amount of energy to keep the water bottle cold until the next time it is used, it costs t amount of energy to have the refrigerator turned on, and it costs d amount of energy to open the refrigerator door each time, figure out a way to find the optimal number of refrigerators, r, to minimize power consumption.

International Space Station Location

You are outdoors on earth and want to find the International Space Station (ISS). You are never further north than Lafayette, Indiana. You are never further south than than Lafayette's latitude in the southern hemisphere. You can identify your location on an aerial photograph. From that, figure out a way to find your latitude and longitude using the web.

How can you double check that your latitude and longitude are correct?

Given a latitude, longitude, and local time devise an algorithm to

• check you are in the range of legal latitudes
• calculate what direction in degrees you should look relative to north
• calculate what angle of elevation or angle of depression you should look (pretend you have X-ray vision and can see throught the earth)

Build a device that helps you know where to look within five degrees of the predicted position in every direction if the angle of elevation to the ISS is at least 10°. Can you see the ISS with your naked eye?

How can you double check your algorithm to make sure it is working correctly?

QWERTY vs. Dvorak keyboard

Compare efficiency in terms of finger motion for Dvorak keyboard vs. QWERTY keyboard.

For the more optimal keyboard above, compare efficiency in terms of finger motion of it vs. same keyboard arranged in a more matrix configuration.