Riddle Me This: Chair Design
Test your skills of deduction with the July 2021 edition of Riddle Me This: Chair Design
You live in a world where everyone weighs at most 100 pounds. You are an engineer at a simple chair manufacturing company. The chairs are simply designed – 4 legs and a seat. Nothing fancy. You want to design the most cost efficient chair. What weight do you design each of the four legs of the chair to support?
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I like your riddle but I suggest that you consider riddles that incorporate more realistic design engineering situations such as 1) what are the basic parts of a 6 part systems specification?, 2) how can a design engineer be confident that their design will be safe for public exposure even if there is a failure?, 3) what does an FMEA form consist of?, 4) how is the MTBF for a product determined?, 5) how are MTBF failure probability failures calculated? and 6) how can a design engineer be confident that his design will work properly the FIRST time up prototype test and not require multiple changes just to make the design operable?
Reminds me of the weight standards for lifejackets. As the average weight of people who might end up in the water goes up, so does the minimum weight a lifejacket must be able to support, hopefully until rescue, in order to get the Coast Guard or SOLAS approval applicable to a vessel’s route.
What this also overlooks is that its only considering the static force of weight and not the dynamic force of “sitting down”.
No idea how the answer idiot proofing a chair is the “most cost efficient” design of a chair, not to mention that someone’s weight doesn’t equal the equal the force that is being placed on a chair. For instance, a fire fighter may be dressed in gear that adds significant weight, a father could be holding his children who jump in his lap, etc.
Terrible riddle that doesn’t even give a clear answer.