Author: Kyle Zigmand

An example of a smart material is a mouth guard. The definition of a shape memory alloy is “an alloy that remembers its original, cold-forged shape: returning to the pre-deformed shape when heated.” The process of forming your mouthguard includes putting the mouth guard in boiling water to make it’s shape go back to it’s original form, and then putting it into your mouth right after, in order for the mouth guard to form to your teeth. When it is formed to your teeth, it remains that way until you put it in boiling water again. Once the mouth guard is formed to your teeth, you can then use it to protect your teeth. Even though it’s easy to change the form of a mouth guard, it is still extremely effective in protecting your teeth from physical contact. Mouth guards are used in activities such as sports. Especially boxing, basketball, and other sports and activities. Due to the ability to change the form of a mouth guard, it provides the best protection that you can get against physical contact. If you just used a mouth guard that wasn’t formed  to your teeth, the protection wouldn’t be as good. However, with the mouth guard formed to your teeth, it provides the maximum protection.

sources:

http://forums.sherdog.com/forums/f11/how-effective-mouth-guards-preventing-teeth-loss-485440/

The plastic water bottle is an innovation known to all. The plastic  water bottle provides a way to carry around water anywhere you want to. The plastic water bottle also provides an easier way to acquire water overall. For example, you can buy a water bottle from any small kiosk or store in the area. It’s also easier to store water when it’s in bottles as well. Such as storing a large amount of water in your house, so that whenever you are thirsty, etc, then you can just immediately have a drink, instead of having to have a filter, or any other way in which you have to clean water.

“Plastic Water Bottle.” The Thing Green Line Shop. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Dec. 2012. <thethingreenlineshop.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/plastic-bottled-water.jpg>.
Environmental and ethical issues include the danger to Earth as a whole, due to the harmful effects of the plastic that stores the water in the plastic water bottles. The plastic that is used in the water bottles is dumped into oceans, landfills, and pollutes the environment as a whole. Not only is the plastic dumped into oceans and landfills, but it’s also dumped into other random countries, such as India. India has tons of mountains of plastic bottles that still are being dumped upon to this day. Not only is bottled water messing up the environment, but bottled water is also messing up the economy, and the whole world as a whole. Over the past 10 years, the price of bottled water has tripled in cost. Even though bottled water is thousands of times more expensive than tap water, more and more Americans still drink bottled water over tap water. The result is that since more and more money is being spent on bottled water, more and more bottled water will be produced, which results in more plastic waste that is being dumped into oceans, and countries such as India. Water is more expensive than gasoline at this point, and it’s pointless to be buying water bottles, when you could drink tap water for almost free. In a way, water bottles are more harmful than gasoline, as the impact of both are technically the same, as they both pollute the environment as a whole. Humans in general should stop buying and drinking out of plastic water bottles, and instead switch to tap water. Tap water is clean, and is easier to access compared to bottled water. If humans could accomplish that, then the Earth would be a much cleaner and safer place than it is today.