{"id":1809,"date":"2007-01-16T16:55:19","date_gmt":"2007-01-16T21:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/?p=1809"},"modified":"2014-12-16T16:55:58","modified_gmt":"2014-12-16T21:55:58","slug":"final-exam-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2007\/01\/final-exam-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Final Exam"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Winter200702\"<\/a>\n

Overheard one autumn afternoon in Freshman Experiences in Mechanical Engineering: \u201cOK, we\u2019re supposed to disconnect\u2026 wait\u2026 no\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIs this the spark plug?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the spark plug, the motor has a hard pull. Without it, it\u2019s easy. Are we supposed to know why?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes anyone know where the muffler is,\u201d \u201c\u2026what a gasket is,\u201d \u201c\u2026what a choke does?\u201d As they grapple to better understand the lawn mower engines before them (the assignment: to take apart\u2014and later put back together\u2014the mower\u2019s engine), many of the students in Professor Ilene Busch-Vishniac\u2019s course get their first hands-on exposure to how an engine works.<\/p>\n

Engines, the most common mechanical items found, incorporate basic engineering principles such as fluid motion, heat transfer, and kinematics. \u201cAn engine synthesizes everything [students] have learned,\u201d Busch-Vishniac says. \u201cAs they dissect it, they question why certain design decisions were made.\u201d<\/p>\n

These particular engines are black and shiny, one cylinder, four-stroke, 3.5 horsepower Briggs & Stratton internal combustion engines. Equipped with screwdrivers, wrenches, and pliers, the freshman teams of three dismantle the engines, labeling parts and carefully documenting their progress.<\/p>\n

As the engines are disassembled into more than 50 individual pieces, questions gradually turn to statements. \u201cThis is the carburetor,\u201d \u201cThis is the throttle linkage,\u201d \u201cYou press this and get\u2014\u2018vrum, vrum.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

After two hours the pieces are packed into plastic baggies and boxes. During reassembly, a week later, tensions are high. In order to pass the assignment, the engines must restart. Ultimately, one engine starts immediately, one after a few tries, and one not at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tiny stuff,\u201d says Busch-Vishniac, \u201clike the heat transfer of microchips, is exquisitely hard to introduce them to and so is the big stuff\u2026We can\u2019t exactly take them out to a battleship and have them take it apart.\u201d However, \u201cthe engine is just the right scale.\u201d Smiling, she adds, \u201cAnd it\u2019s a chance to roll up your sleeves and get gasoline and oil under your nails.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Overheard one autumn afternoon in Freshman Experiences in Mechanical Engineering: \u201cOK, we\u2019re supposed to disconnect\u2026 wait\u2026 no\u2026\u201d \u201cIs this the spark plug?\u201d \u201cWith the spark plug, the motor has a hard pull. Without it, it\u2019s easy. Are we supposed to know why?\u201d \u201cDoes anyone know where the muffler is,\u201d \u201c\u2026what a gasket is,\u201d \u201c\u2026what a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-final-exam","issue-winter-2007"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFinal Exam - JHU Engineering Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2007\/01\/final-exam-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Final Exam - JHU Engineering Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Overheard one autumn afternoon in Freshman Experiences in Mechanical Engineering: \u201cOK, we\u2019re supposed to disconnect\u2026 wait\u2026 no\u2026\u201d \u201cIs this the spark plug?\u201d \u201cWith the spark plug, the motor has a hard pull. 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