ENGINEERING USING THE DISTANCE FORMULA What is an

ENGINEERING USING THE DISTANCE FORMULA

What is an engineer? • Engineer means to invent, create, or to regulate • Use math and science to create buildings, bridges and other structures • Create safe highways and roads • Many different types of engineers – Construction, structural, geotechnical, transportation, environmental, water resources

Transportation Engineering

Transportation Engineering • Definition: – Transportation engineers are responsible for planning, designing, and operating streets and highways, transit systems, airports, railroads, ports, and harbors to provide for the safe, rapid, comfortable, convenient, economical and environmentally compatible movement of people and goods.

Transportation Engineering • Examples of projects: – Implementing ways to relieve traffic congestion – Parking facilities – Planning, designing, and operating airports, railroads, ports, and harbors – Designing and controlling a computerized traffic signal system to allow for efficient movement of traffic

Transportation Engineering

This is a website that explains the Where’s My Bus. This is a useful website for people that use the bus system in Lincoln, NE. It tells you where the buses are at any given time and what time they are scheduled to be at each stop. You can show the students different routes and talk about how they can use this if they need the bus. Where’s My Bus?

Distance Formula • Example: A(2, 3) B ( -1 , 4 ) I taught this lesson the day after I taught distance formula so this is a good warm-up problem or you can use it mid-lesson to break up the notes and to ensure that the students know how to use the distance formula for the activity.

http: //www. lincoln. ne. gov/city/pworks/startran/routemap/index. htm

This is the bus route that goes to North Star high school which is the bus my students use, might want to change to fit your school. http: //www. lincoln. ne. gov/city/pworks/startran/routemap/index. htm

This is a picture that John Coburn got when he traveled the bus system with a GPS tracker, this is the route that goes to North Star. John Coburn Undergraduate Student Intern Mid-America Transportation Center Nebraska Transportation Center University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Activity Missing factors are: Stop lights, speed limits, accidents, ect. • The bus is at Point A on the map and we are at Point G. We want to help the engineers figure out how long it will be until the next bus arrives. • Brainstorm missing factors needed to determine how long it will take for the next bus to arrive

Closure • What is an engineer? • What kinds of things do engineers do? • How can engineers determine when the next bus will arrive?

References • http: //www. ite. org/career/index. asp • http: //www. icivilengineer. com/Transport ation_Engineering/