First Year Seminar 191CNS2 - FYS- Topics in CNS

First-year (R1ST) Course Title: Arts & Crafts Engineered: A Playful Introduction to the Mechanics of Materials
Why does a knitted T-shirt stretch more than a woven dress shirt? Why is it so hard to gift-wrap a bowling ball with wrapping paper? Why does paint spread so easily on canvas but not drip while it dries? Expert artists and craftspeople have long known the secrets to these technical questions, and as we will learn in this course, there is serious science at the heart of many of our arts and crafts projects, from knitting to origami to painting! Using the world of crafted matter as our guide, we will discuss some ideas from materials engineering that we encounter every day ? stress and strain, flow and deformation, viscosity and elasticity, and how these ideas can teach us to be better crafters. More importantly, we will learn to appreciate the scientific wonder of the things around us ? that we can be ?serious scientists? without taking ourselves, or our subjects, too seriously. Together, we?ll also have time to share crafts new and old, so bring your artistic curiosities and be ready to dig into the science that weaves them together. Like other First Year Seminars, we will also discuss and practice strategies to help you thrive at UMass.