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Design Brief - Written plan that identifies a problem to be solved, its criteria, and its constraints. The design brief is used to encourage thinking of all aspects of a problem before attempting a solution. Constraints - Limitations, restrictions; limiting factors that should be taken into account when identifying and preparing a project proposal e.g. lack of available materials, skills, funds. (http://www.mos.gov.pl/mos/publikac/Raporty_opracowania/manual/glosry_1.html) Criteria - Standards on which a judgment or decision may be based (http://www.cllactionplan.com/resources/glossary.jsp); Requirements that focus on the desirable or necessary characteristics of the final design Rubric - Guide [table] used to score performance assessments in a reliable, fair, and valid manner and is generally composed of dimensions for judging student performance, a scale for rating performances on each dimension, and standards of excellence for specified performance levels. (palm.sri.com/guide/glossary.html) Brainstorm - Group process used to generate a large number of ideas about specific issues in a non-judgmental environment. (www.qaproject.org/methods/resglossary.html) Prototype - Original object or form which is a basis for other objects, forms, or for its models and generalizations; An early sample or model built to test a concept or process (en.wiktionary.org/wiki/prototype); Full-scale, working model Area - Amount of [2-dimensional] space taken up in a plane by a figure (http://library.thinkquest.org/2647/geometry/glossary.htm) Mass How much matter there is in an object (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass) Volume - Amount of 3-dimensional space occupied by an object (wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn) Force Capacity to do work or cause physical change; energy, strength, or active power (http://www.answers.com/topic/force) Buoyancy - Tendency or capacity to remain afloat in a liquid or rise in air or gas; The upward force that a fluid exerts on an object less dense than itself (http://www.answers.com/topic/buoyancy)
Specific Gravity Mass of a substance, given as a multiple of the mass of the same volume of a standard substance (usually water). The specific gravity of aluminum is 2.70; hence, a cubic foot of aluminum weighs 2.70 times as much as a cubic foot of water; the ratio of the density of any substance to the density of some other substance taken as standard, water being the standard for liquids and solids, and hydrogen or air being the standard for gases (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/specific gravity); Dynes - Unit of force in the centimeter-gram-second system, equal to the amount of force required to give a mass of one gram an acceleration of one centimeter per second. (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dyne); NOTE: Water has a specific gravity of 1.0. This means that a cubic centimeter of water would have a mass of 1.0 gram. Since buoyancy is a force and not a mass, it must be converted to the proper units, which when multiplied by the acceleration of gravity (980 cm/s2) gives the units of dynes. That is, (1.0 gram) (980 cm/s2) = 980 grams cm /s2 or dynes. Archimedes Principle Principle that states that the buoyant force on a submerged object is equal to the weight of the fluid that is displaced by the object (http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K12/WindTunnel/Activities/buoy_Archimedes.html) Pascals Principle - Pressure applied to an enclosed fluid is transmitted undiminished to every part of the fluid, as well as to the walls of the container (http://physics.bu.edu/~duffy/py105/Pressure.html) NOTE: Buoyancy arises from the fact that fluid pressure increases with depth and from the fact that the increased pressure is exerted in all directions (Pascal's principle) so that there is an unbalanced upward force on the bottom of a submerged object (http://hyperphysics.phyastr.gsu.edu/Hbase/pbuoy.html)