Cranes

 I've learned a lot about cranes this semester and have become a lot more fascinated seeing them using on construction sites. After seeing multiple crane failures like the one below in Chicago, I better understand the limitations of cranes as well as the efficiency they provide.

I first learned about cranes in my intro to engineering class in high school, and how they needed to balance strength with reach/radius in order to carry heavy loads but also move them around large worksites. To understand it we built a paper and string and toothpick crane. My group failed to realize the weakness of these materials with any kind of decent reach. The winning team had a very short, thick crane arm. I am glad that we have steel to be able to build functional cranes for the actual construction projects. It was really cool to watch Heavy Lift Engineering present on all the different types of cranes during a Mines ASCE meeting. It was especially cool to see stuff like what was done in the picture below, with weird, abnormal objects needing to be moved around. I've also started to notice the mobile cranes, mounted on the back of trucks that have anchors, driving around Denver.