Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS. Hello my name is Arman Tendulkar I am 14 years old and going into 9th grade at Newton South. For the competition I decided to make the trophy in the shape of a pineapple due to its connection with the mystical and weird underwater world of Spongebob. I chose this object because of its funky shape making it easier to find with echolocation or other sensors. I also chose it because it has a funny and interesting background story and I feel that it would be a cool object to find if/when the winning team discovered it. The shape of the trophy is just like an actual pineapple except with a few modifications. The first and most visible one is the pineapple’s shape, I chose to cut it in half because when it lands at the bottom it would roll over if the bottom was curved. I chose to cut it in half, instead of cutting just a sliver at the bottom I cut half of it off because that is where the center of mass is and at that point it will be at its strongest point so waves can’t knock it over. The second change is the pineapple’s skin. Instead of having the criss-cross pattern that a pineapple usually has, I replaced it with multiple clones of the the X-Prize logo all across the face of the trophy, to represent X-Prize and it’s competition. For the material used to make the trophy I chose to go with HSSS or High Specific Strength Steel.This steel was developed and created in South Korea by scientists. Though titanium seems like the obvious choice due to its strength, HSSS is actually better for many reasons. First off it is significantly cheaper than titanium but the biggest difference between the 2 are there strength to weight ratio. HSSS is as strong as titanium but scientists have found a way to make it lighter. The secret lies within the “recipe”. The “recipe” starts with aluminum which makes the alloy lighter but weaker. To increase the strength they “ added a dash of manganese and a sprinkle of nickel, while modifying the way the metal crystals form at the nanometer scale” says NBC News (
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/strong-titanium-cheap-dirt-new-steel-alloy-shines-n301226). If this alloy is hard to find, titanium is an excellent substitute but is far more expensive.This alloy would be used to make the entire trophy and would be used to fill it in also, so there are no hollow spaces. The self righting mechanism is at the top of the pineapple where the leaves would be. I replaced the leaves with a rod and “propeller”. This mechanism replicates what ariel bomb tail fin looks like when it falls down towards Earth. This makes sure that the trophy lands down on the ocean floor with ease and keeps it from falling over. Thank you for considering my design.
