The first ever STEMng meet up: My experience #1

Hello, great minds of the best platform ever. It's a pleasure writing on this platform once again.

The great event has actually come and gone (like it should never end), but the great feelings and lessons learnt will forever stick to my memory many years to come.

That great event is none other than the first ever STEMng meet-up. It was held at the Lekki Conservation Centre, LCC, Lekki, Lagos state on 12 noon of Wednesday, 11th of July, 2018. I was there, so I'm here to share my experience, the joy I felt , the fun I had and the lesson I learnt so far.

[The meet-up banner designed by @agbona]

Just before I proceed, I'd like to give a little exposition on STEMng and what it entails .
STEMng stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Technology; while the ng stands for the short form of Nigeria (a country). @STEMng is the Nigerian's biggest sub-community of @steemSTEM, a community-driven project which seeks to promote well-written and informative Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics posts by Nigerians on Steemit. The project involves submitting quality STEM-related posts to the steemSTEM management for upvoting and resteeming where applicable.

Now that I've given us the insight about what @STEMng entails, let me proceed on the great experience I witnessed today.

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The build-up

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Though for some weeks back, @gentleshaid has been announcing on STEMng discord server about this meet-up, but my anticipation of going built up and got to the optimum a night before the D-day. I couldn't sleep cos I kept on mulling on the experience and what to expect.

Being the shy type and also new to the community, I was wondering on how I would blend in without feeling left out amongst the great authors that would be coming. Though, I was opportuned to have met a very few of the steemian (such as @gentleshaid, @steepup, @oluwabori, @ugonma, @conas and @herbayomi) prior to the day, but a whole lot I was yet to meet. So, all these thoughts made me restless and stole a larger part of my night before sleep eventually took me away to the dreamland.

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On the D-day

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I was woken by my alarm exactly 5:30am on the D-day, which was on a Wednesday 11th of July, 2018. I had to quickly rush to the bath and had a shower. I didn't want to keep @gentleshaid waiting. He promised to take me in his ride, down to the venue of the meet-up at Lekki, Lagos state. (A big thanks to him!).

We had to leave early because we would be coming from Ife, an ancient town in Osun state, which is like 5 hours journey to the venue of the meet-up.

[That's a selfie of me in my favorite native attire at a junction by 6:30am waiting for @gentleshaid to drive by and pick me up]

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The journey

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The journey down to the venue of the meet-up was both smooth and rough. We set off some few minutes after 7 O'clock in the morning. Though, we encountered a very tight traffic congestion at some points along the way, but the rest of our journey down to Lagos was smooth sailing. Well, except for a little twist of a plot.

It's very typical of Lagos; though a big city in Nigeria, to keep changing every now and then due to some developments such as expansion of roads and creation of more bridges. So, probably due to those changes, the driver missed a point where he was supposed to turn and gbam! That was it. We lost our way and it took us a whole lot of time and direction seeking before we could be able to get ourselves back on track. That cost us some good few minutes of limited time. Finally, we drove inside the Lekki Conservation Centre at about half past twelve of a beautiful clear-skied afternoon.

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At the venue of the meet-up

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It was with great joy and happiness I, @gentleshaid and his beautiful wife, alighted from the car to greet our fellow steemians at the venue. Presently on ground were @synick, @agbona, @rharphelle, @real2josh, @mrbreeziewrites, @temitayo-pelumi, @dandymee, @thurllanie, and @sogless.

Then later came the likes of @djoi, @eurogee, @funmiakinpelu, @samest, @bunmi, @amazonaesh and @herbayomi.

[a group picture of all the STEMng members present at the Lekki meet-up, Photo credit: Aminah]

After a brief introduction, shaking and hugging ourselves, we proceeded to the ticketing office to purchase our individual tickets for climbing the "canopy" as it was called by the tour guide. Lemme quickly chip in this before I forget; we, the @STEMng members had to only pay for the ticket to climb the canopy(which was actually optional cos you could still enjoy the scenery and aesthetic view if you didn't), the gate fee was already taken care of by the STEMng management (@gentleshaid).

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The Canopy

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[A picture, taken by me of the "canopy"; a suspended overhead bridge at Lekki Conservation Center, Lagos.]

The canopy is a form of a suspended overhead bridge but narrower. It is made up of strong Aluminium metal as the base, while some strong thick ropes weaved in the form of a fish thread were attached to either side of the bridge as a support. It is both a resonating and undulating type of bridge. Climbing on the bridge will make it easy for tourists to have a perfect view of the entire expanse of the reserve.

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The Physics behind the "Canopy".

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Although, where the meet-up took place is a Conservation center which literally means a place where things are preserved, guarded and protected. But according to a Biologist, the word "conservation" can be termed as a discipline that borders on protection of wildlife, biodiversity, environment and natural resources. But, I am not a Biologist, i'm a physicist. And as a physicist, I didn't look much into the biodiversity issue cos my knowledge is very limited in the area but I noticed there's a lot of physics that could be explained in the hanging bridge.

Firstly, the bridge vibrates and resonates. "To resonate" can simply mean to vibrate or give sound especially in response to another vibration. In physics, Resonance is an important term in sound waves.

It can be defined as the increase in amplitude (maximum displacement) of an oscillation of a system under the influence of a periodic force whose frequency is close to that of the system's natural frequency.

What I'm saying in essence is that, if many people climb on the bridge at the same time and they start to march rhythmically on the bridge, it would reach a certain time the marching would continue and the bridge will collapse. What happened is that due to the force exerted on the bridge rhythmically, the frequency of the marching people on the bridge is level or equal to that of the bridge's natural frequency, so resonance sets in and the bridge collapses.

So, to prevent resonance from occurring whereby the bridge collapses and endanger our lives, it is good and advisable for people climbing on such bridge not to march at the same time and with the same frequency. (One of the reason why I was shit-scared when @funmiakinpelu was dancing and marching with the same frequency as mine while we were on the bridge. As a physicist, I understands the principle but she doesn't. Haha. Lol. )
That was actually meant as a joke.

[A picture of @funmiakinpelu and I, as we were about to climb the bridge]

Secondly, aside the resonance effect on the bridge, I learnt that the maximum capacity the bridge can carry at once is approximately 700 kilograms. Meaning that if a load exceeding 700kg is mounted on this bridge, sooner or later it will collapse. That's the more reason why the tour guide instructed us not to be more than 6persons at once on the bridge with the average of 70kg at most. By multiplying 70kg in 6 places gives 420kg which is still in accordance with what the bridge can withstand.

[Picture of @STEMng members walking on the bridge in sets of six as instructed by the tour-guide]

Finally, apart from the effect of resonance and body to mass ratio, there are other factors that I also took note of; some of which are, like not walking on the bridge while it's raining, when there's heavy wind and thunderstorm. During rain, the bridge will be slippery as a result of friction. Friction is a force that opposes motion and if you are unable to move, you tend to slip and fall.

The wind can cause vibrations which are also harmful to the one climbing the bridge. The bridge might start vibrating and turning zigzag when there's heavy wind and a climber at that moment might tend to fall or injure himself.

So also is the thunderstorm, the bridge is made of Aluminium which is a group three element on the periodic table. It's a metal and metals are good conductors that electricity pass through easily. If a thunder strike coupled with fact that it's raining while u're walking on the bridge, you might get instant electrocution from the thunder strike. Both the metallic bridge and the raining water would serve as catalyst in aiding the electric shock.

[Picture taken by me: Some of the other guidelines to follow to ensure safety while climbing the bridge]

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Conclusion

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In conclusion, the STEMng meet-up was all full of fun, social interaction, networking and enough of science to observe and learn from, a typical example is that of the suspended bridge ("The Canopy") and its working mechanism. This is just the physics part of my excursion, I'll write more of the fun part in my next post. Be on the look out.

Finally, I won't end this post without saying a big thank you to all the STEMng management for putting up such a nice get-to-gether. A big part of the thanks also goes out to all the STEMng members that showed up at the event and made it fun and also to those that couldn't make it but support us with kinds. God bless y'all.

Personally, for me, It's a great privilege being part of this great and biggest community on steemit. I'll always strive my best in the development of the steemstem and stemng communities.

Thank you!

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References

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Conservation

Resonance

Friction

All images used were taken by my phone's camera