The Tower of Pisa is one of the most magnificent bell towers in Europe. It began construction in 1173 and became an ongoing project for nearly 200 years due to several wars. The circular bell tower constructed of white marble stands at 185 feet tall. The eight story building contains 207 columns that support the outer edges. 15 arches surround the first floor while the next six have 30 arches. A 297 step staircase leads up to the final story that has 16 arches. The bell chamber resides in the apex of the tower. (1)

The Tower of Pisa, or campanile, was never planned to be leaning. It was an unintended consequence that resulted from constant halting of construction and poor soil. After the third story being built, it became noticeable that the tower looked to be leaning. It remained unfinished for 100 years and then resumed construction. Then another halt occurred which delayed the completion process even longer. Eventually it was finished with slight tilt. Each year, the tower tips more and more by about 1.2 millimeters a year. (2) The architect that designed it is unknown to this day. Several engineers and architects try to carefully fix the leaning but have always resulted in a failure. In 1935, engineers tried drilling holes to seal the base because they were worried that excess water would weaken the foundation. (2) It only made the leaning worse.

The tilt of the tower has made Pisa, Italy a universal landmark for its uncanny features. The Tower of Pisa is such a famous tower because of how it possibly can still stand without collapsing. Pisa is now a tourist sight which brings in a substantial amount of income. Overall, what might have been a mistake 840 years ago, ultimately making the tower better off tilted.

1 – http://www.towerofpisa.info/

2 – http://science.howstuffworks.com/engineering/structural/will-leaning-tower-of-pisa-fall.htm

Due to the dangerous nature of football and concussions, developers of football helmetsincluding Riddell have transformed the helmets to make them as safe as possible.  In the1920’s when football was just getting started, helmets were made out of soft leather and helmets were not even required until 1943.  However, now players wear helmets made out of molded polycarbonate shells, which are used today because of their strength and weight.

Not only has the material used to make the helmets completely changed, the designs have improved to increase safety for all football players from high school to the NFL.  Early football helmets did not include a face mask or a chin strap.  This left a player’s face wide open and the lack of the chinstrap meant that there was nothing keeping the helmet from falling off on a play.  Twenty years after the first football helmet, developers created the first chinstrap for the football helmet.  For facemasks, a single face mask bar was added to helmets in 1955 and seven years later every NFL player was wearing a face mask.  Finally in the 1970’s pads were added to the inside of the helmets and full face masks were added to the helmets.  Therefore, the design of the helmets has become much safer due to the face masks, chin straps, and extra padding.

The future of football helmets will be about limiting concussions and injury as much as possible.  Experts that are researching how to make helmets as safe as possible are looking into how to have less impact on the players head.  One idea that can contribute to increased safety is making the helmets lighter which would decrease the force on impact.  Another idea is to somehow create a helmet that is connected with shoulder pads to redirect the force into the body and not on the head and neck. Football helmets continue to become safer in the future and hopefully one is developed that eliminates the high probability of concussions.

http://www.madehow.com/Volume-3/Football-Helmet.html#ixzz2wS0qTmSr

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000095139/article/history-of-the-nfl-football-helmet

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=lukas/110113_bulwark_football_helmets

The iPhone was the first smartphone that introduced multitouch technology. The design of the iPhone was also very simplistic and sleek which users loved when first using this incredible device. “iPhone is a revolutionary and magical product that is literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone,” said Steve Jobs(1).

When the iPhone was first released, the design of the phone differed from that of other smartphones available. The iPhone was the first of its kind to deviate from the standard physical keyboard and the use of a pen and move on to what is known as multitouch. The iPhone is very user friendly. The front of the iPhone offers one physical button to the user that displays the screen. The left side of the phone offers volume control. And the top of the phone has the power button. The rest of the device consists of a large touch-sensitive screen that lets the user access all of the iPhone’s functions(2).

As you can tell, the iPhone wasn’t your ordinary smart phone. This phone also functioned as a portable media player, game console, and handheld computer, making the device very popular. Since 2007 the iPhone has grown drastically due to its simplistic and sleek design. Year in and year out, the market for the newest iPhone will always be huge. The iPhone was mainly successful because of its design, being so simple, but other reasons may include great customer service(3). As Apple designer Jonathan Ive said, “Our goals are very simple – to design and make better products. If we can’t make something that is better, we won’t do it”(3).

1 – http://www.imore.com/history-iphone-2007

2 – http://smallbusiness.chron.com/iphone-popular-27294.html

3 – http://techland.time.com/2012/05/07/six-reasons-why-apple-is-successful/

The Great Sphinx or Sphinx is a limestone statue of a reclining sphinx. What is a Sphinx you might ask? It is a mythical creature with a lion’s body and a human dead. The Great Sphinx of Giza is the largest and oldest monolith statue in the world, standing 73.5 meters long, 19.3 meters wide, and 20.22 meters high (1).

To this day, nobody truly knows who built the Great Sphinx but most egyptologists think that the Sphinx was built by King Khafre. Khafre was the builder of the second of the pyramids at Giza who ruled around 2558-2532 BCE (2). The Great Sphinx was solely build off of man power. The Head of the Sphinx was made out of hard grey limestone while the body was made from soft yellowish limestone. In order to form the body, large stone blocks were quarried from the base rock in order to form the body (3). The excess rock was then used to build the temples surrounding the Sphinx.

This amazing piece of history was recently revealed and dug up in the 20th century revealing its body. In the 1980’s, during a six-year period, more than 2000 limestone blocks were added to the body of the Sphinx and various chemicals were injected in the hopes of preventing its further deterioration (3). Without further exploration and discovery, the mystery of when the Sphinx was created and by whom will further be unsolved.

1 – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Sphinx_of_Giza

2 – http://www.howitworksdaily.com/history/who-built-the-great-sphinx/

3 – http://sacredsites.com/africa/egypt/great_sphinx_facts.html

The PortaCaddy is a product for men and women who are always on the go and are very simplistic. My friend and I thought of this idea that would allow consumers to have a tube-like holster for all of his or her shower needs such as shampoo, conditioner, and body wash/soap.

This product allows someone to have all of his or her favorite shampoos and soaps in one place rather than having to carry each bottle around with them. This product is mainly aimed towards men and women who tend to travel a lot, allowing them to bring their own toiletries from home in the same ‘bottle’.

The idea is sort of a spin off of the popular portable shower-caddy that college students tend to use, as well as being influenced by the rules and regulations of an airport which states that for carry-ons, one can only have a 3.4 oz bottle or less(1). Our product follows these rules.

As of now, I believe that there is no product on the market that is similar to what I hope to produce. The PortaCaddy is a very unique product that provides consumers with the freedom of being able to customize their own carry-on for their shower needs. And by the way, it features a spring loaded tooth brush to!

1 – http://www.tsa.gov/traveler-information/3-1-1-carry-ons