The name of the article is "Characteristics of Head Impacts Sustained by Youth Ice Hockey Players". Overall this was an interesting article partly because it was my first time reading a scholarly article focused on mechanical engineering. The study focused to measure the magnitude of head impacts sustained by 14 young male ice hockey players wearing instrumented helmets, and to compare impacts across a game, player position, and location. The reason for this study was because it was understood that in young teenage males, that the developing brain would be more resistant and recover quicker. Now it is thought that the child's brain is more vulnerable to long term effects from head trauma.
I can go on and on explaining the process of how the experiment came along, but I am sure you are wondering now how this has anything to do with mechanical engineering, especially if you're not a mechanical engineering major. There are some major concepts of materials, instrumentation, and dynamics that are directly related to this case in hockey. The understanding of the resistance of the helmet and the hockey stick needed to be known for analysis of the actual impact of the child's head. Also, the tools used to measure the data will need to be known how to use and analyze the date, such as accelerometers and telemetry instrumentation. The most obvious mechanical engineering related study is dynamics having to do with the acceleration of the player, hockey stick, and target as well as the effects of gravity and resistances.
After going through the whole article including the data and conclusion, I found it amazing how humans have come so far as to pick a subject, create an experiment, and come up with results with precision. Has anyone else been surprised as to how their major can relate to an unexpected subject?
This sounds like an interesting article to me! I bet further research would be done about the materials used in the helmets and pucks to be the most damage resistant. I thought it was interesting that the article highlighted the youth of the players as a good thing, noting the ability to regenerate because I have always been taught that while you are young you have to be extra careful because your brain is still developing.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question, yes- I am often surprised at how seemingly unrelated things can be tied together. I am in a sociology class about gender roles right now and you can literally study anything and see if there are any kinds of gender effects. Classes like this, with variables that can permeate all levels of society, can show you the strangest links between concepts.