Week 4: April 21, 2016

Another day, another exciting opportunity to work on research for this team's HamPipe. This weekend will contain an impressive amount of time spent on fabrication of the team's initial heat pipe, or heat pipes as the case may be. This means that the group is under pressure to finish at least most of the necessary research during class this week. It is also important for the blog to show real progress before the start of class next week. Both the acetone and methanol came in during  the past week, so Karen and Noelle brought them into class. Fabrication will be at Noelle's house in West Chester, so the group discussed logistics (Ben won't be able to attend, so Karen and Noelle will be the main fabricators, at least for this round). Beyond that, the group set themselves on specific tasks. Karen worked on creating heat charts for the different chemicals being used in the heat pipe (water, methanol, and acetone). Ben, while still afflicted by a dreadful bout of the flu, worked to fill any gaps in research regarding materials being used, different heat pipe theories, and really anything else that might be missing from the group's knowledge base. Noelle continued working on the blog, both completing the week's blog entry, and organizing and filling in the research links section, as well as adding to the background information tab. Overall, it was a quiet week, each group member mostly keeping to themselves in an effort to finish up all required research and background before the actual fabrication was set to begin.