Week 2- Why the Romans were to blame for the Challenger shuttle disaster

This week saw the start of my lectures at the University. I’m taking thermal engineering, mechanics of fluids and structures, design 2 and instrumentation and design this semester. This is a mix of mechanical, biomedical and engineering science modules which means I’m getting to meet plenty of new faces. A few things I’ve noticed so far in classes are that the seats are far more comfortable than back home, the lecturers are very passionate with much smaller class sizes, it seems that the lecturers are better but this could be down to enthusiasm and also my interest in the subjects and it’s very odd having to wait at traffic lights to cross the major junction on Symonds street to get from one lecture to the next. Other things I learnt this week are that bulk cooking is great if you freeze some of it because by the sixth meal it becomes a little boring, don’t overfill the dryer or else you’ll be left hanging up all your washing in your room and Auckland has quite an undulating topography.

The most important thing I learnt this week is that the Romans were to blame for the Challenger shuttle disaster. The official report was that the O-rings that created a seal on the booster rockets attached to the main rocket were too cold that morning and failed, causing the explosion. But, the question is why were there O-rings in the first place? When the Romans built their chariots, they built them approximately the width of two horses backsides so it could be pulled efficiently. Then when they went all over Europe building roads they built them wide enough for their chariots pulled by two horses. So when the first carriages and carts were built they were built with these roads and tracks in mind because it was easy. Then trains and train tracks were built using this same width and then tunnels were built for trains of this size. As the tunnels were only so big the Challenger rocket had to be transported in pieces and assembled on site, causing the fatal error. So there you have it, blame the Romans.

It was Re-O week at college so I had the opportunity to join a few clubs. I joined the Canoe, Ski, Frisbee and Hockey clubs with many exciting trips planned it’ll give me plenty to keep myself busy! We also had a function at the accommodation called Block Dinners where we all went to one apartment with some food to share around. It was great to have such a big feed! And meet some of my neighbours. My big purchase of the week was a bike which I’m very excited about using to save myself lots of time getting around. I had my first taste of hockey on Saturday helping a team that was stuck and we came away with the win and then on Sunday I was trialling for the University Frisbee team from 9-14:30. It was a very different vibe to the teams I’ve been on before but great fun nevertheless. It was just good to be able to get out and play again in remarkably mild weather for the winter!

After Frisbee, I went with my neighbour and friend, Julian, on an adventure to Devonport where we went to explore the old army base there. We cycled to the ferry and from there were transported across the bay. We set off again on bike, first to Mount Victoria and then to North Head. From Mount Victoria we could see around the whole city under the setting sun. Both hills are disused army bases from World War 2 which were built when the kiwis were afraid of attack from the Japanese and the base at North Head is open to tourists. We went in and explored the network of tunnels before summiting the hill and cycling home, absolutely wrecked after the day’s exploits.

You can find all the photos from Devonport here.