Discussion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 25

Discussion - Essay Example The cause of the fire outbreak was electrical fault (omoakala.blogspot.com, 2012). The myth of panic during fires means that in the incident of fire breakout, people get into panic and make their utmost effort to escape and save their own lives irrespective of others. Such a behavior is identified as a myth because this is not what normally happens during a disaster. There is a great deal of difference between the myth of panic and the actual behavior of people observed during the incident of a fire outbreak. In reality, people tend to help as many people as they can even if they have to put their own lives in danger for that. People help others around them before helping themselves. This behavior has been commonly observed during the disasters. For example, during the 9/11 attack, people not only helped their friends and relatives escape, but also the strangers (White, 2003). In the event of fire outbreak, occupants’ decision making is influenced by a whole range of factors including commitment, familiarity, role and responsibility, and social. The occupants cannot think of leaving people they are familiar with behind in trouble. They feel an intrinsic sense of commitment and moral obligation to God as well as other people to help the people. It seems just too out of place and selfish to just take care of one’s own life and forget one’s role and responsibilities toward others. Man is known to be a social animal. Likewise, the occupants’ decision making during a fire outbreak is affected by their social networks and links. Occupants’ individualistic traits like their age, gender, physical and mental capabilities play a fundamental role in the level of help they can extend to others during a fire outbreak. Certain occupants like children, women, and old men indeed need others’ help to escape since they cannot even help themselves whereas other

The relationship between a Toucans beak and new materials Essay

The relationship between a Toucans beak and new materials - Essay Example An example of such natural inspirations is the toucan’s beak. This is a great natural phenomenon that has attracted much attention from material engineers as they try to study its properties and understand the factors behind its unique features. The toucan’s beak is long and thick, and is perceived to be heavy for the bird though it is relatively light despite its size (Seki, Kad Benson & Meyers, 2006). The toucan’s beak is a third of the bird’s length, about 1/20 it’s mass, and has been proven to possess great stiffness (Seki, Schneider & Meyers, 2005). A study of the bird’s beak found it to be made of a sandwich composite with keratin on its outside and close calcium cells rich proteins making a fibrous network (Seki, Schneider & Meyers, 2005). Moreover, the closed cell making the bird’s beak has fibers with a young modulus of more than twice as high as the keratin shell on the outside due to the calcium content. Therefore, such biological materials when well-studied inspires engineers to come up with materials that correspond to the beak, which incidentally would offer similar characteristics and qualities in engineering materials , resulting to superior materials for specific us age. For example the length of a toucan’s beak and its size in relation to its light weight inspire engineers to come up with martials with a keratin coating on the outside, fibrous networks on the inside, plus an added calcium layer to achieve the strength and flexibility portrayed by a toucan bird, but still meet the need to have such a large component with light weight. In the construction industry where flexible materials are essential, such toucan’s beak offers a great inspiration for engineers to come up with similar materials, which will offer more flexibility, will be much light compared to its size, will possess great strength, and which will absorb high impacts (Biomimicry Institute 2013). Such materials