Discrete flexibility

Discrete flexibility! Its a wonderful thing. It may souns a bit lewd, but its not what you think. Imagine, for instance, an inflatable bouncy castle with a bunch of kids jumping up and down on it. Then you know why its called a bouncy casle. The thing bounces and flexes all over the place! Now imagine you had to calculate the flexibility of that castle. Mesh it using very small elements and then have a supercomputer process the whole model, solving the millions of equations. It'll take a long time. trust me, I know!

Now why is calculating that bouncy castle so damn complex? Perhaps we are over-calculating? imagine you are a bouncy castle designer, do you really want to know at exactly what angle and amplitude every wrinkle and crevice occurs at which forces? No! You want to know wether one of the towers can collapse, and hit a kid in the baby-curled head!

Same with inflatable wings, I want to know how far it flexes. I dont need to know that at x = 0.65434 the third wrinkle is 0.263cm high. And of course, then only to find out I made a small error in one of the boundary conditions which renders the entire solution useless. All these numbers behind the decimal point give a fake sense of accuracy. When measuring the distance from Amsterdam to Paris, you don't use a 20cm ruler!

In comes discrete flexibility. Divide the beam up into a number of stiff discrete elements and join them together with springs. Write smart equations for the behavior of the springs, making them behave as inflatable beams. Et Voila! A fast running simulation! It may not be as exact as a FEM analysis can be, but its a hell of a lot quicker, and thus, far more intuitive.

Yes... I love discrete flexibility! I have some programming to do. Catch you later :)

Jeroen Breukels

Japan... I can't stop talking about it!

Last week I spent some time in the busy epicenter of the land of the rising sun: Tokyo. First of all, its an 11-hour flight from Amsterdam, which makes you kind weary. like a letter which has been photocopied over and over and over again. I exit the plane and immediately, the stark efficiency of Japan stuck me hard! no long lines, no trash... I was going through customs as smoothly as a snake in a bucket of Jello!

Now, Japan doesn't like to mix. they stick with their own things. their own food, their own humor, their own rites and idiosyncracies. Grown women dressed as barbidolls, men drinking and kissing eachother in bars (non-gay men! :P )Japan is a sight to behold.

But what struck me the most BY FAR, is how extremely friendly the japanese are! For instance, at the subway station, people actually missed their connections, just to show the way to a lost european. Some actially walked me half a mile to the correct platform. Every greet is accompanied by a small bow. Arigato! And get this... because the japanese think it is simply rude to directly take money from someone (even when you buy something in a store) they have a little tray in which you can put your money. After aother arigato, they will take the money from the tray and replace it with your change. its incredible. people who have a cold wear little cloth masks so they don't infect others. no crime... no graffiti.... no trash... I was walking at night in small Tokyo alleyways, and not once did I feel unsafe!

Tokyo is by far the busiest city I have ever been to. and that's saying something. I've been pretty far and wide across the globe. from Kuala Lumpur to Los Angeles. you think your city is busy? go to tokyo! Tokyo makes New York City look like a rural village! And yet, dispite the 37 million people that live so very very close to eachother, people just seem to get along fine! I don't know about you, but i think thats amazing!

The reason for this is nested in the mentality of the japanese people. Here in the west, we only know guilt. If you did something bad, its your fault and you are guilty. But guilt is something outside of you. you're never guilty until caught, right? Other people bestow guilt on you. And guilt is simply transferrable. oh no I'm not responsible..! it's his fault!

The Japanese have no guilt, they have shame. When a japanese person does something bad, he is not found guilty.. he is ashamed! and shame is personal. it is something within yourself. it is undenyable and non-transferrable. and that is a major difference in morality between the european/american public and the japanese!

Having spent nearly a week in the Tokyo madness, i can only say that we as westeners have a lot to learn from our japanese friends! except for the food... that all looks like different collored snot to me! haha.. but then, i am a straightly meat-n-potatoes kind of guy! that's my guilt.. maybe even my shame!

Jeroen Breukels