engineering

Vermontasaurus

Vermontasaurus is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Vermontasaurus rather than just read about it. In short: Vermontasaurus is a 25-foot-tall (7.6 m), 122-foot-long (37 m) folk art representation of a dinosaur at the Post Mills Airport in the town of Thetford, Vermont. Overview The Vermontasaurus is the creation of Brian Boland, a retired teacher and experimental balloon pilot, who with a crew of volunteers used scrap lumber obtained from a collapsed portion of Boland's private museum and hot-air balloon manufacturing faci…

Key takeaways

Vermontasaurus belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Vermontasaurus to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Vermontasaurus from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Vermontasaurus is a 25-foot-tall (7.6 m), 122-foot-long (37 m) folk art representation of a dinosaur at the Post Mills Airport in the town of Thetford, Vermont.

Overview The Vermontasaurus is the creation of Brian Boland, a retired teacher and experimental balloon pilot, who with a crew of volunteers used scrap lumber obtained from a collapsed portion of Boland's private museum and hot-air balloon manufacturing facility to build the sculpture, starting in June 2010. Boland adopted the name, "Vermontasaurus," from the comment of an onlooker. According to the Valley News, the sculpture is part of an eclectic collection of old cars, improvised vehicles connected with hot-air ballooning, and other curiosities that Boland has assembled at the Post Mills Airport.

Controversy As of July 2010 the State of Vermont and the town of Thetford had weighed in on whether Vermontasaurus was a work of art or a structure that requires a permit. The state Division of Fire Safety prohibited people from being allowed underneath the sculpture, pending the approval of a structural engineer to attest that it was safe to do so. Subsequently, Vermont District Environmental Commission No. 3 granted a permit for the wooden dinosaur, ruling that it had no negative environmental impact under Vermont's Act 250. Despite an initial assertion that the structure would require a building permit, the town of Thetford waived the requirement, ruling that the structure is a work of art. The sculpture received confirmation as a permitted use from Thetford's Development Review Board in an August 2010 meeting attended by more than 50 people. The decision was controversial because such a large sculpture was not a use envisioned in the town's ordinances.

Collapse and reconstruction

In October 2011, three months after the State of Vermont ruled that the sculpture could remain in place, the structure's midsection sagged to the ground. In June 2012, Boland organized approximately 50 volunteers from as far away as Maine to transform the collapsed portion of the sculpture into a revised representation of a dinosaur. In addition, volunteers built a "baby Vermontasaurus", alongside.

References

External links World Press page for Visiting the Vermontasaurus Facebook page for Vermontasaurus

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Vermontasaurus

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Vermontasaurus claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Vermontasaurus before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Vermontasaurus ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Vermontasaurus

In research: Vermontasaurus appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Vermontasaurus in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Vermontasaurus is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2010 sculptures, Animal sculptures in Vermont, Buildings and structures in Thetford, Vermont, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Vermontasaurus outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Vermontasaurus in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Vermontasaurus means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Vermontasaurus out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Vermontasaurus in simple terms?

Vermontasaurus is a 25-foot-tall (7.6 m), 122-foot-long (37 m) folk art representation of a dinosaur at the Post Mills Airport in the town of Thetford, Vermont. Overview The Vermontasaurus is the creation of Brian Boland, a retired teacher and experimental balloon pilot, who with a crew of voluntee…

Why does Vermontasaurus matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Vermontasaurus?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Vermontasaurus.