for coursework , design advantages and disadvantages of using wood metal and plastic , to make something , and in my case a clock ? thanks
Can be done effectively if the car is parted by hand. Sell the good parts, remanufacture the drivetrain if desired but don't just crush and melt the rest! This is wasteful, environmentally harmful and also deprives people somewhere of jobs. Seriously, just give autoshop students a job ripping into cars and sorting the materials, they'll be doing the world good, learning about cars and making some money. Huge factories are being opened to process cars in other parts of the world... let's keep our minds open.
In general, wood is cheap and easily assembled, metal is strong and very durable, plastic can have a great range of specialized properties for different uses and is light weight. On the downside - wood rots and is prone to failure at places of connection, steel rusts, is very heavy, and often costly, plastic isn't as strong, can be costly, doesn't always perform well under temperature load. For a clock, you'd want metal for the precision parts (gears, moving stuff), and plastic for the housing/face.
