Vegaman Dan
Member
Registered: Oct 2000
Location:
Posts: 34 |
The question of whether or not the scrapyard in Scrapyard Heap (Junkyard Wars in the US)is 'seeded' is confirmed true by the producters of the show. And while that may seem like cheating, there are very good reasons for it:
1) Contestants must be able to reasonbly find the materials to build the projects. They do not necessarily need to either use them or even know of their existance. They may not know about the materials seeded and go a completely different route than expected.
2) Contestants must be expected to complete the project in one day. They may find hydraulics in a junkyard, but *working* ones are faster to put into action than those that need new seals, a shaft replaced, etc.
3) Safety. There's no way that the producers are going to allow pressurized devices without making sure that they are intact and operational. In cases of steel pressure tanks, they are certified and registered. One show coming up deals with steam power. Boilers were provided in the yard and had to be safety inspected beforehand. Producers keep books with the licenses and certifications of all the critical components in the yard that have been placed there.
Propellers are high speed and dangerous devices. You do not want a blade to fly off at speed in an already shaky apparatus. You need to ensure only propellers in good condition are in place. Those that are needing repair or damaged may not be recognized as such by those contestants who don't know what to look for. Better to use good materials in the first place.
4) Contestants do not know what they are building until they are brought together and given the starting time. They are given 'experts' to help and guide them, but not make the decisions.
5) Education. The entire point of the show is about education. You may be watching teams building machines to tear down walls, but cleverly hidden in those contests are explantions and applied use of hydraulic principles, leverage, gravity, building techniques, etc. Physics in the real world using materials you can concievably find around you. It's one thing to see a demonstration of a principle using highly polished aluminum stands, glass beakers, shiny components and expensive materials, but quite another using 55 gallon oil drums, fan motors out of a Ford, and some angle iron welded up into a jigsaw puzzle.
Oh, and to see a Visor on the show was a real hoot! I wish I could have seen what application they were using. The show did put on quite about about how the "crazy americans" were really using their traveling computer systems to help them in the challenge. Heh. Nobody had a Stowaway though or a Minstrel modem. Hmm... I wonder if using a Minstrel would be cheating since you could have access to the entire Internet for reference materials?
__________________
Green Vdx
The Mountain Dew of PDA's.
|