This week’s design project is to:-

Design an Optical Lens and Electrical Navigation System

The requirements are;

The Lens System

1. The lens system must be able to see in all directions simultaneously.
2. The lens system must be capable of seeing all the colours of the rainbow and also ultraviolet light.
3. The lens system must be able to detect or perceive objects as small as 0.04 inches in diameter to as large as 10 feet, from distances of 1 inch to 20 feet.
4. The light from the lens system must be converted into electrical voltage pulses whose magnitudes will be:
1. Proportional to the light intensity.
2. A maximum amplitude of only 20 millivolts.
3. Delivered to a central computer.
4. Via an electrical network system containing no more than 72,000 paths
5. The electrical pulses must have a discernable value even when the light intensity is only that of a full moon.
6. The central computer must be capable of translating as many as 72,000 electrical voltage pulses into a meaningful image.

Requirements for the Navigation System

1. Sensors must be provided to detect the direction of the earth’s magnetic field and the position of the sun.
2. The central computer must be able (from an input of information on the sun’s position and the earth’s magnetic field) to determine its present position to an accuracy of plus or minus 100 feet.
3. The computer must be capable of directing its navigation pilot to a new location as far away as 3,000 miles to an accuracy of plus or minus 100 feet.

Other Requirements

1. The system must be designed to weigh less than 0.5 grams.
2. The system must be smaller than a pea.
3. The system must be so designed that it can be built in eight days by one person in total darkness without any outside help.

See God’s perfect answer

The Monarch butterfly migrates between Canada and Belize, a one-way distance of 3,000 miles.

• Eggs laid en-route will hatch as a larva, change to a caterpillar, pupate (change to a chrysalis) then emerge as a butterfly all within 28 days. The new butterfly will then continue the migration.

Design specifications quoted from ‘From Darkness to Light to Flight’ by Jules H. Poirer