Friday

Last friday was an emotionally-filled day for me. In the morning, it was the testing session for our own fabricated aluminium beam. I have high hopes on the beam that my group members and I have fabricated because based on the facts that we have learnt from Statics ans Mechanics of Materials, the tensile failure will be rather high. In addition, we have taken into account the transverse shear force acting between the reaction force and the loading force.
Anyway, the testing of aluminium beam starts and the result falls short of our expectations by about half. We will grateful that we did not put a flat aluminium strip on top of the I beam as can be seen from other groups, the strip buckles and causes additional tension to the beam. However, our beam has a premature failure due to insufficient rivets clamping the web. In addition, this project involves prizes with the top 4 getting $200. Knowing the results from the previous groups, I think our group is almost one or two places in there.
Sadness start to overwhelm me. It reminds me of the previous bus fan amazing race that I have participated a year ago when there are prizes in the top three and our group is number 4. When I think of that, I feel even more down.
The key is to let go.