Interesting from many levels
Is this more of an engineering project or do you want a tent you can use? Some practical considerations aren’t so interesting from engineering point of view. Like if the zipper goes up more rain won’t fall below.
You must be a millennial. I didn’t know you guys knew what paper and pencil were : )
To simplify, Cosine of an angle close to zero ~= one, Angling it a bit doesn’t reduce strength much.
One pole is better than two:
They get a little longer because that angle gets further from zero so the cosine starts getting smaller than one. And then you need a bigger diameter pole. If a pole is twice as long, for example, you need a much bigger diameter tubing for the pole. There’s some sort of power relationship or something.
And if you have two poles, they need to be more than half the diameter each. So the total weight will be more. Again, there’s some sort of power relationship with strength as a function of diameter of tubing. Twice the diameter tubing is much more than twice as strong. (or rigid or whatever…)
I made an asymmetric mid that I’ve used for years. On the side of the pole I sleep on, the floor is 9 feet x 4 feet. On the other side is a triangle that extends about 3 feet. Saves a little weight.
Maybe if you did two people, you could make the side people sleep on 6 feet wide.
The zipper is on the triangle side. When I open the door, half of that triangle floor area is exposed to rain. That’s sort of my porch. The other half of the triangle is covered so I store stuff there.
I like the peak to be 60 inches tall. Then I can sit up during rainy periods. I like the zipper to go almost all the way to the top. Leave it unzipped when it’s not rainy or windy for better ventilation. Taller peak adds weight though, cancels out any savings from being asymmetrical. Almost all commercial mids are shorter (to save weight?)
When you sew panels together, you want to sew sides that are on the bias together, and sides that are angled to the bias together, because it stretches differently. Regular mid this just happens automatically. A little more difficult with asymetric. You just have to correctly layout the two panels that make the triangle side.
Pitching a regular mid is fairly easy. Stake the four corners. You just have to be square. Put in the pole. Done. Except when the four corners aren’t in a plane you have to finagle with guyline length a bit to compensate. Or the pitch is funky – wrinkles and ridges aren’t taut.
Asymmetric mid is harder to figure out, but then maybe easier. Stake the two far corners of the rectangle side. Put in the pole. Stake the farthest corner of the triangle. You have only three corners so they’ll be in a plane. Then stake the 4th and 5th corners. If the farthest corner is close to the ground, then when you unzip, the shape of the tent won’t change and you can easily zip back.
I don’t know if any of that makes any sense. Probably more than you wanted but you said mechanical engineer.
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