Pittsburgh Arts, Regional Theatre, New Work, Producing, Copyright, Labor Unions,
New Products, Coping Skills, J-O-Bs...
Theatre industry news, University & School of Drama Announcements, plus occasional course support for
Carnegie Mellon School of Drama Faculty, Staff, Students, and Alumni.
CMU School of Drama
Friday, July 20, 2012
TED Marshmallow Challenge Gets Upscaled
It is Alive in the Lab: People often say "Bigger is better." Here is an example. I first blogged about Autodesk Fellow, Tom Wujec's, marshmallow challenge in October of 2010.
3 comments:
Trent Taylor
said...
I think its really cool that they featured the scaled up marshmallow experiment on their page. I had done the project before so doing the scaled up version was a lot of fun for me. I also really appreciated the amount of calculation that went into testing materials to find the MDF and it seems like the TED people did also. I wonder if they will show any of the other people who worked on the initial project. It will also be interesting to see if any other groups who have previously done the marshmallow challenge will do it again in full scale, given that the instructions are given and calculations have basically already been done for them.
Having recently completed the marshmallow challenge on both the regular and larger scale, I can honestly say that they are two very different experiences. Doing it the original way is much more practical, yet while it would seem easier, is very difficult to execute. On the other hand, once one has mastered the small scale model, the larger scale would seem much more achievable, but in reality is much more difficult to manage because of the sheer mass of the structure. Overall, I think that the marshmallow challenge is a great way to learn collaboration and cooperation with peers. Whether on a small or large scale, it is a challenge that can be both educational and fun.
It's very exciting to see our own experiment get some attention. It's very interesting to see how the actual marshmallow project in its basic form can translate so well into everyday projects, where the marshmallow is the general assumptions (the weight of the marshmallow is much heavier than it seems). Doing the project on a much larger scale is both fun and challenging in a very intuitive manner, helping to build in teamwork.
3 comments:
I think its really cool that they featured the scaled up marshmallow experiment on their page. I had done the project before so doing the scaled up version was a lot of fun for me. I also really appreciated the amount of calculation that went into testing materials to find the MDF and it seems like the TED people did also. I wonder if they will show any of the other people who worked on the initial project. It will also be interesting to see if any other groups who have previously done the marshmallow challenge will do it again in full scale, given that the instructions are given and calculations have basically already been done for them.
Having recently completed the marshmallow challenge on both the regular and larger scale, I can honestly say that they are two very different experiences. Doing it the original way is much more practical, yet while it would seem easier, is very difficult to execute. On the other hand, once one has mastered the small scale model, the larger scale would seem much more achievable, but in reality is much more difficult to manage because of the sheer mass of the structure. Overall, I think that the marshmallow challenge is a great way to learn collaboration and cooperation with peers. Whether on a small or large scale, it is a challenge that can be both educational and fun.
It's very exciting to see our own experiment get some attention. It's very interesting to see how the actual marshmallow project in its basic form can translate so well into everyday projects, where the marshmallow is the general assumptions (the weight of the marshmallow is much heavier than it seems). Doing the project on a much larger scale is both fun and challenging in a very intuitive manner, helping to build in teamwork.
Post a Comment