I’d gone here as a young child in school, and then went as part of a team building afternoon. Massive Deja Vu in front of all of my coworkers
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Bay Model
31–40 of 67 posts
Re: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Bay Model
#32Why do the Army Corps of Engineers get so involved in civil infrastructure in the US - thinking of the Mississippi in particular? In other countries the government would be involved but it would be a civilian rather than military role
They're decentralized enough as well that some of their local offices have hilarious online presences. For example, Portland...
Re: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Bay Model
#33The distortion is interesting and something I didn’t realize the model included. I assume that it’s necessary because the effects of surface tension and the viscosity of water (and other effects?) change its behavior at this scale relative to the features of the model?
Have you ever watched a movie with a fire or explosion just didn't look right because it was a scale replica? At a subconscious level, you may have picked up on how the dynamics of the smoke or debris didn't fit right with the scale. It's because the fluids in the model lacked "similitude" at the adjusted scale.
When building scaled models, adjustments have to be made to create that similitude, usually done by comparing some dimensionless number at the real scale and model scale. If you're using water, maybe you can't adjust the viscosity, so you may you have to adjust the velocity to get the same dimensionless number. Everything doesn't just scale linearly; you tweak the variables to achieve the dimensionless value so the whole system dynamics remain faithful.
E.g.,
Re: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Bay Model
#34The fellow who lived next door to me told me of a similar model system used to model Sydney Harbour which he worked on in the 1970s. IIRC it was instrumented with electronics and linked to a VAX or similar early machine.
The Aus Navy had a computer simulation of Sydney Harbour, dating from the 70s or maybe 80s. One particular feature of the system was a disk drive about 1m in diameter with about 12 heads. Cost a bomb, but I guess it was worth it. When I saw a demo, they had an easter egg of a Loch-Ness type monster in it. There's also a topographical map of the harbour at St Ives showground but it's purely non-hydrographical. But it'…
>The Aus Navy had a computer simulation of Sydney Harbour, dating from the 70s or maybe 80s. One particular feature of the system was a disk drive about 1m in diameter with about 12 heads. Cost a bomb, but I guess it was worth it.
Meanwhile the Soviets probably found a little inlet somewhere that was "close enough", evicted anyone who lived there and excavated it to match.
Some junior engineer probably had to wake up at 1am to take a kayak out to "Little Kotlin Island" to change the tape in the recording equipment in time for the tide change.
Re: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Bay Model
#35Big fan of this thing. It's one of my favorite places to take friends who visit the Bay Area.
Something that's not mentioned in the article is that the building they occupy is a former warehouse of Marinship, a World War Ⅱ shipyard that made Liberty Ships and T2 oil tankers used to supply fuel in the Pacific Theater: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marinship
The Bay Model building has a Marinship museum in a front room. For anyone who wants to see Marinship's full story in motion, here's my HEVC encode of ‘“Tanker” — 1942–1945 War Time History of Marinship Corporation’ https://mega dot nz/file/lgtmlKIA#asrzuwGOxi6l8I5BmgyAxfKkm1zFcxvY4SYS1SxqtZk
See also Marin City, which is the remains of Marinship's on-site worker housing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marin_City,_California
e: the Bay Model building is the big square one that is center-frame starting at 04:30 in the video, Marin City at 09:23, and some beginnings of modern-day international oil politics at 12:28.
Re: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Bay Model
#36I haven't been there in awhile. Back in the 90's the Autodesk tech office was next door to the Bay Model and we'd occasionally pop over for lunch and tour the place. Great to see it still around and open to the public.
Was it displayed at the Civic Center or did Autodesk have an office location in Sausalito? I had never heard of this Bay Model and believe to only have seen a model at the (new location) of the Exploratorium - this was over a decade ago so don't quite recall
Re: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Bay Model
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think a model this size full of alcohol would also be quite hazardous for several reasons.
Even if it wasn't a large size, it likely wouldn't be great. During my PhD on sprays, I did some (unpublished) experiments using isopropyl alcohol to reduce the surface tension. The nozzles I used were around 1 mm in diameter as I recall. I did not anticipate that the room would fill up with isopropyl alcohol vapor and (probably) tiny droplets. I wore a mask and maybe left the room while each trial was running. Breat…
You just get drunk from the vapour way faster than it can have a measurable impact on the lungs.
(you can actually drink it if it's reasonably pure. it's even less toxic than ethanol, but the hangover is terrible)
Re: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Bay Model
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am ... confused by your statement.
To simulate a Godzilla incursion and check if the movie where Godzilla attacks San Francisco makes an accurate depiction of what would happen. For science.
The real question is would a Godzilla incursion be good for property values (novelty, tourism attraction, remove some housing stock) or decimate them (safety concerns, change the spirit of neighborhoods).
Re: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Bay Model
#39I haven't been there in awhile. Back in the 90's the Autodesk tech office was next door to the Bay Model and we'd occasionally pop over for lunch and tour the place. Great to see it still around and open to the public.
Was it displayed at the Civic Center or did Autodesk have an office location in Sausalito? I had never heard of this Bay Model and believe to only have seen a model at the (new location) of the Exploratorium - this was over a decade ago so don't quite recall
Autodesk was founded in Marin and later moved down. This model is 10km^2 so it's not moving anywhere.
Re: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Bay Model
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Was it displayed at the Civic Center or did Autodesk have an office location in Sausalito? I had never heard of this Bay Model and believe to only have seen a model at the (new location) of the Exploratorium - this was over a decade ago so don't quite recall
Autodesk was founded in Marin and later moved down. This model is 10km^2 so it's not moving anywhere.
Yes, the Marin Civic Center in Terra Linda is what I'm referring to.
Edit: above said "next door" so I'm curious how literal they meant this