The UPEI Suh, Friday; Oct. 77, I977. Page 18

*WHAT'IS IT?

The Engineering Dept. are now displaying several models in the exhibition area in the Robertson Library.

The models seen there are examples of Syn— ergy. Synergy is de‘ fined by Buckminster ' Fuller as "The behav- ior of whole systems, unpredicted by know— ledge of the compon— ent parts or of any subaSSembly of com— ponents".

-No other word has that meaning and the

and

Order

and get

W fact that most people do not know the word means that most people do not know you can get more out of a sys- tem than you put into it. Take for example a chain. The links might be of iron, which has a tensile strength of 60,000 lbs, or chrome at 70,000 lbs, or nickel at 80,000. (Manganese and carbon, etc. at 50,000 lbs.)

If we make a chain it will be no stronger

Wha-t 'everyuniversity -. needs is a-quarterha-ck

UPEI can get at McDonald’s

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than its weakest link which is 50,000 lbs.

If we melt them to— gether to form a rod, common sense expects that the strongest nickel, will be weakened by admixture of the others However, common sense " is wrong. It is far stronger than the sum and even stronger‘Still than the average. For wstainless" chrome— nickel steel castings can be made with a tensile strength of

un- an:

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350,000 lbs. inch.

Why can a 300—lb man ride a bicycle whose , wheels are spoked with wires a child can bend? The strength is in the

per square

system. The wires' iensile strength sup— ports the load while putting no force at all On their susceptibility to crumpling.

Does an inflammable metal, sodium, and a poisonous gas, chlorine, predict common salt? This is an example of molecules combining synergetically.’

The model of the Tensegrity Sphere in the library is about as dramatic an example of synergy as we are likely to find. Pick it up. Squeeze it. It yields like a rubber ball, and pops out again. An energetic squeezer would perhaps break-something, a wire...a stick. But the system remains the same. Stronger‘sticks- of steel tubing or box steel, and alloy wires would prevent that. The U;S.‘Patent #3;O63,521 remarks that a fine tensegrity‘mesh—work

gcould cover whole cities.

When examining the models, try to see the system, not the wooden sticks.< It is the system which is strong. The lone stick is use— but the incorpor— ation of the synergetic system is what will > support the bridges;— the buildings—-the structures of the future-