• Question: how long does it take to design something

    Asked by Stan to Chris, Paul, Priyanka, Ryan, Sarah on 9 Mar 2016. This question was also asked by Erin Logan.
    • Photo: Christine Coonick

      Christine Coonick answered on 9 Mar 2016:

      Hi Stan,

      Bit of an impossible question to answer as the something could be anything. I should imagine the person who designed the button came up with a pretty good design fairly quickly, whereas the mobile phone took a bit longer.

      I can normally design a solar power system in a day or two, depending on the size and application.

    • Photo: Sarah Hargreaves

      Sarah Hargreaves answered on 10 Mar 2016:

      Great question! It takes a lot longer to design the mini nuclear plant for a submarine than it does to actually build it.

      To design the nuclear power plant it can take over 8 years in total, this is because it is a very complex, with lots of different systems which all have to work together. This means that one change to a system to make it better could actually make another system worse, so the design is all about compromising to make sure we have the best nuclear power plant we can. As part of designing the nuclear power plant, lots and lots of reports have to be written so that we can show that the plant will work and that it will be safe. This is where my job comes in, I have to check these reports to make sure that the calculations are right and that we have designed it so that it will not harm the submariners.

    • Photo: Priyanka Dhopade

      Priyanka Dhopade answered on 10 Mar 2016:

      That’s a very good question. It depends a lot on what you’re trying to design.
      With a jet engine, it could take anywhere between 5 and 10 years. This includes the amount of time you need to:
      – design it properly (run lots of calculations and make detailed computer models)
      – build it and test it out to see if it does everything you thought it would
      – take the time to fix anything that might go wrong (this is the biggest unknown and could potentially take the longest amount of time!)

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