For my first post ever on the EAF, I decided to talk about two of my favorite past times. Working out and drinking beer.

Simplicity is key to almost any project. Everyone wants things to be less complicated and easier to understand. Heck, some of the best movies I’ve ever seen have had the simplest plots i.e. The Terminator (1984), Paranormal Activity (2007). In engineering, simplicity usually means that your solution will actually work and for a lot less money than competing ideas. Earlier this week I came across two ideas on Kickstarter that are excellent representations of simplicity in engineering.

Slip Cup

Now this idea is so simple and effective that it’s mindboggling how someone hasn’t done this before. If your beer gets dirty from the dirty ball, then don’t let your dirty ball touch your beer. Simple as that. Creating a physical barrier between your beer and your ball is an obvious solution and that’s exactly what these brothers did. Placing a cup that fits over the existing lip of  the cup used for beer pong solves the sanitation problem but there is more innovation and thought put into the design. Obviously if the ball does not dive into a pool of beer and instead makes contact with a hard bottom surface of the Slip Cup, it will bounce out of the cup making the game impossible to play. This was solved by adding catching fins to inside of the cup’s wall to allow the ball to pass through but not out. The fins are simple cantilevers that act as springs being stressed elastically which allow for them to recover and hold the ball at the bottom of the cup. Not surprisingly, the thickness of a Slip Cup is small relative to that of the hosting cup so that it does not affect the skill required for the game. They also added numbers to the Slip Cups which adds organization and innovation to the games possible. So this product is more sanitary and more fun to play with. Sounds like a winner to me.

MAXX BENCH

Now this idea I am particularly upset about because it’s one that all my gym friends and myself included have pondered inventing. Lifting heavy is dangerous but necessary when you want to tear muscle fibers and move up a level in strength. However, this is risky behavior especially when working out alone without the assistance of» a spotter to rescue you when your cannot lift the weight off your body. Dave, a mechanical engineer, has designed a bench that eliminates that risk and allows a single person to spot him or herself by using a hydraulic release system actuated by a foot pedal to lower the lifter out of harm’s way. The foot pedal lowers the bench to allow the weight to rest on crash bars which frees the lifter to slide out from under the bar. Simple. Easy. Smart. Safe. If anyone goes to the gym regularly, they know there is little to no innovation in workout equipment and ideas like the MAXX BENCH are exactly what the athletic community needs. More science and engineering. The bench is rated to fail at about 4000 pounds so even a gorilla can use this bench and still be safe.

These two ideas were inspired by what the people involved were passionate about. Drinking beer and lifting weights. They are simple engineering solutions to common problems. Look into your life, find your passion and see how you can improve on it.