Team Buildit:
Engineering 101
by: Haile Shavers
Lenora Quinonez
Jordan Jackson
Rassim Chettfour
Kyle Debro
Austin Lopez
○ Introduction
Engineering is not simply just putting up a building, it requires an immense amount of knowledge,
and a capacity for ingenuity as well. To work as an engineer, one must be familiarized with many
scientific and architectural aspects. As young engineers, our team has learned about six major lessons
pertaining to engineering: Takeoffs and drafting, measurements, spreadsheets, steel and concrete, bridge
components, and why buildings are built the way they are.
○ Architectural Representation
Engineers track the cost of materials by buying them in a certain unit measurement that helps them
determine the total expense of a project. There are specified measurements that are applied to materials.
The three such measurements are: linear, square, and cubic feet (It could also be evaluated in cubic inches
but big scaled projects commonly use materials sold by the cubic foot or the cubic yard.)
The measurement of a linear, squared, or cubic foot is based upon its dimensions. For example, when
an engineer is in need of some concrete he/she must purchase it by the cubic inch, foot, or yard. This is
because there are three dimensions to concrete; it has length, width, and height. So, it must be measured to
the third degree because of the three types of measurements that make it. The same idea applies to an item
that is measured in the squared foot, such as the amount of grass that needs to apply to a lot. Since its
overall height is the same, it is negligible, and the only measurements left behind are width and length.
Giving it the measurement of squared feet, inches, or yards, depending on the amount of grass that is
going to be applied to a plot of land. The last type of measurement is a linear foot, which is applied to
wood. However, it is quite odd to understand how wood can be measured in the linear foot if it has three
dimensions. That is pretty easy to comprehend. If an engineer were to buy a piece of wood that is 2 by 4.
The width of the wood is trivial because it would be the same no matter how many times it is cut
vertically. Now the only measurement you have left for the wood is length. Leaving it like this ,wood is
understandably measured by the linear foot.
Drafting is essential because it gives every minute detail of a building. This is the first step in
building, where you think of what type of building, location, and other safety precautions.
It must be a very detailed blue print for the architect because it is all the architect has to refer back to.
Drawing dimensions is done on graph paper where you have a scale. For example a block will be worth 5
feet vertically and 2 feet horizontally. The different views drawn are called profile and plan view. The
plan view is drawn from a birds eye view. The birds eye view only shows the top of buildings. The view
would look as if everything is square or rectangle. The profile view is as if one were standing right in front
of buildings, so the drawing will have every aspect of the building, and look like the finished project.
Making the different views is important because an engineer needs to make sure that an architect puts up
the right structure, and knows exactly how the building needs to be made, or else the credibility of the
engineer will falter, and the building will not survive. Drafting is the process in which you draw the
dimensions, outline, and building plan of a building.
Takeoff and drafting are important components when thinking of engineering. Takeoffs and drafts
are included in every building and the way in which an engineer would want the building to look . That
includes the floors, dimensions of the buildings, and surrounding objects. Takeoff is when you estimate
the cost of all of your materials.
When building houses, bridges, or other structures, workers have to estimate the cost to all of the
materials needed. There are multiple ways to interpret the cost; using a calculator or writing all the costs
down. However this method is very inefficient. Assuming that the prices of materials had gone up, a
person would have to recalculate all your estimations. Recalculating the costs, would take an exponential
amount of time, so there is an easier way to do these calculations—spreadsheets.They are an easy way to
do calculations and change the data used to find the sum of costs to build the structure a person has to
build in an organizational manner.
Spreadsheets are an efficient way to make calculations and record large amounts of data. All a
person has to do is put in functions to decide the cost. For example, when wanting to find the cost of
concrete, the person can multiply the cost of concrete and the amount of concrete to find the price they
need. The simple way to do this is input cells in a function and to find the value. When using the
spreadsheet, a person can input the measurement of each material to keep in mind how much of the
material they need to carry out simple and complicated math. Spreadsheet is an efficient tool for
calculating costs for materials.
○ Engineering Analysis
Another major lesson our group has learned about is bridge components. Among these components
compression has to be taken into account when constructing a bridge. Compression is basically when one
pushes something together. One can see this in bridges at the concrete foundation where a lot of the
weight of bridges is transferred. Concrete is very good with compression and is not easy to crush down
with weight. That is why it is so frequently used as the foundation for houses or bridges. .
One other component is tension. Tension is basically the opposite of compression. Compression
pushes things together while tension pulls things apart. An example of tension on a bridge, is the many
solid steel cords suspending the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. These cords are being pulled apart
by the main cables on the bridge that they are attached to and the road part of the bridge. These cords of
course aren't going to actually be ripped apart by the weight of the bridge; but, they are dealing with a
great amount of tension. Another thing to take into account when building a bridge is flexure. An example
of flexure on a bridge is the road of the Golden Gate Bridge. Looking at a picture one can identify that the
bridge is bending slightly upwards. This is because the main cables are holding up the middle of the
bridge making it so that the bridge doesn't sag. If the bridge was set down on a flat surface without the
towers it would be just like a giant ruler. The suspension cables, however, are holding the middle higher
than just flat. Torsion is another component, the act of twisting. The golden gate bridges suspension cables
are a great example of torsional stress. If you look closely at them you'll see that each of them are actually
two different cables twisted together to make a stronger singular cable.
Hooke’s law is a major factor in engineering. It is what helps to determine the load capacity of
certain materials. F= K*x is the formula, in the instance that ‘f’ is the force, ‘k’ is the constant of the
object, and ‘x’ is the displacement of the object. The force is directly proportional to the displacement
from the object. On a more complex level, there is the formula F=EA, where ‘F’ is the limit to the load an
object can possess, ‘E’ is the maximum amount of stress that the object can have (Young’s Modulus), and
‘A’ is the cross sectional area of the member. F=K*x is the simpler version pertaining to the mechanics of
materials. In essence, Hooke’s law allows for engineers to calculate the load an object can take.
○ Materials
Steel is a material that is used to withstand tensile forces, or when a material is being pulled
on both sides. It is a metal that is good at being expanded, but is weaker under compression, a force that
crushes objects. One would use it to build the frame of a sky scraper. The I-Beams are used to construct
the frame of buildings. Rebar is a type of steel inside of concrete. The steel allows the structure to be more
tensile, while the concrete is for compression. When you buy steel beams they are purchased by linear
measurements, so that the person that one buys the steel from will comprehend what you are talking about,
and that is how one measures it as well. Steel costs more than concrete, but depends on the seller, there is
no set price for all vendors.
Concrete is a material that is strong and used for compression, meaning it is resistant to pressure
that pushes down upon it. Concrete is good under compression, but not under tension. One would not be
able to stretch it and if you tried to, it would crumble into pieces. It is usually used to build columns and
foundations, both of which are subject to intense compressive forces. When one buys concrete they have
to buy it in pounds per cubic inches, feet or yards. Concrete costs less than steel, but depends on the seller;
there is no set price for all sales-people.
○ Conclusion
Throughout the past 2.5 weeks, Team Buildit successfully learned and applied key concepts in the
field of structural engineering. Topics such as steel and concrete, and the application of spreadsheets were
covered, as well as other matters such as Hooke’s Law. Structural engineering basically is about how
objects are built, the materials they are built with, and why they are built the way they are. Within our
team, we have done multiple labs that imitate the real actions an engineer must undergo, such as takeoffs,
drafts, and dimensional analysis of building that already exist. Moreover, the team visited the Golden Gate
bridge and analyzed its structure to better understand how bridges use certain materials and parts to stay
up. This is what Team Buildit covered in the 2.5 week span, and more is surely to be covered.
Example of a
takeoff