3-D printing: A means of producing physical items — including toys, foods and even body parts — using a machine that takes instructions from a computer program. That program tells the machine how and where to lay down successive layers of some raw material (the “ink”) to create a three-dimensional object.
acceleration: A change in the speed or direction of some object.
aerodynamic: Having a shape that reduces resistance from air flowing past.
air pressure: The force exerted by the weight of air molecules.
composite: A material made using two or more different building blocks, which together produce something with new and better features. Carbon fiber reinforced polymers are one example. Embedded in these hard and strong plastics are tiny fibers made from carbon. Engineers use these plastics to build lightweight bodies for race cars and airplanes, among other things.
engineering: The field of research that uses math and science to solve practical problems. Someone who works in this field is known as an engineer.
force: Some outside influence that can change the motion of an object, hold objects close to one another, or produce motion or stress in a stationary object.
generation: A group of individuals (in any species) born at about the same time or that are regarded as a single group. Your parents belong to one generation of your family, for example, and your grandparents to another. Similarly, you and everyone within a few years of your age across the planet are referred to as belonging to a particular generation of humans. The term also is sometimes extended to year classes of other animals or to types of inanimate objects (such as electronics or automobiles).
lattice: Something made by fastening strips of some material (typically wood or metal) at angles relative to each other so that they create a pattern of square- or other-shaped openings. Or it can be a term used to describe a surface that has holes that look as if they…
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