PDF Proposal

Step Right UP, Folks! Step Right UP to see the wonder and beauty in transportation made possible by AIR! By studying principles of flight and laws of motion, you will marvel at the lifting power that can be accomplished by overcoming the forces of gravity. Here, you can ride Hover Bumper Crafts to investigate Newton’s Laws of Motion; learn about lift, weight, drag, and thrust as you attempt to fly like a bird in a motion activated video game; try your hand at several experimental physics games in Bernoulli’s Arcade; see how wind whips and whirls around different wing shapes in the Wind Chamber; and try out the future of air transportation – a Hyperloop! Exhibit Inspiration To begin this project, we first had an informal class debate and then voted to determine our category: transportation. Our teacher made us research many topics of transportation and most of the class presented information about flight. One student in our class brought in information about a hyperloop – the new fifth form of transportation which uses air to move a frictionless capsule along through a tube at very high speeds. This hyperloop can allow passengers to travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco in twenty minutes! The class then began to discuss how air transportation can be more than just flight. We decided to investigate all areas of air transportation. Our studies began by learning about Newton, Kepler, and Bernoulli – the father’s of flight and gravity! From there we posed the following questions: Things fly, but how? Does Aerodynamics affect everything that flies? Is there really such a thing as zero gravity? How does the shape of a wing affect flight? What are the four forces of flight? Why can’t we just put on wings and fly? While researching these questions, we broke up into small groups and brainstormed to develop fun and interactive exhibit activities. The theme for our exhibit was inspired by the group who studied Bernoulli. They wanted to create arcade-­‐like games to teach Bernoulli’s principle. This, coupled with our idea of Bumper Hover Crafts, led us to our circus theme: STEP RIGHT UP! Interactive Activities Hover Bumper Cars -­‐ How do Newton’s Laws influence air transportation? IN our activity, Hover Bumper Crafts, participants will experience Newton’s Laws first hand as they ride Hovercrafts made to act as everyone’s favorite carnival ride: Bumper Cars! Newton’s first law states that “An object in motion stays in motion until an opposite force stops it” We’ve reduced the force of friction by creating an air pocket under the craft; however the bumper craft you bump into might just be that opposite force that halts your propulsion! A prerecorded narration will explain how Newton’s laws are allowing the lift and thrust to occur as riders glide around the ring. Bernoulli’s Arcade -­‐ What is air pressure and how does it relate to air travel? Physicist Daniel Bernoulli discovered that when air speed increases, air pressure decreases. How does this relate to flight? As the air rushes over a wing, the pressure on top decreases and creates a force called lift under the wing. In this exhibit, participants will play arcade games designed to teach Bernoulli’s principle. In TP the Target, visitors will use a leaf blower to unravel a spool of ribbon. The objective is to place the air just above the spool, and cause the ribbon to take flight, landing in the target. In railroad bottles, visitors will use another leaf blower to blow air in between two bottles which rest on casters. The reduction in air pressure in between the bottles will cause the bottles to come together, thus ringing a bell. Finally, the Ball and Funnel game will require visitors to pump a bicycle pump into a small end of a funnel. The funnel will contain a ball under it and with the correct amount of air blowing on top of the ball, the ball will actually float! Wind Tunnel -­‐ What is aerodynamics and how does it affect flight? In our activity, visitors will learn how the combination of wind speeds, wing shape, and the angle of attack help to create the most aerodynamic flight experience. Participants will step right up to a wind tunnel and be presented with four different plastic wing choices. They will place the plastic wing inside a wind tunnel, close the glass door, pre-­‐set a wind speed, and watch as colored fog creates a visible vortex coming off of the wing they chose. Visitors can manipulate variables such as wind speed, wing shape, and wing angle to answer the question: What has the greatest affect on aerodynamics? Bird Simulation -­‐ How does something fly? Our exhibit demonstrates the four forces of flight: lift, weight, drag, and thrust. Visitors will have the chance to simulate flight as they become nature’s flight expert: A BIRD! Projected on a giant screen will be a specially designed Kinect type game in which players choose a bird to become. They then run to create thrust, which will in turn allow proper lift to occur. They will have to overcome obstacles, such as weigh and drag, to maintain lift throughout the game! Visitors will walk away from the experience with a greater understanding of how these 4 forces work together to create the perfect recipe for flight! Hyperloop -­‐ The hyperloop shows visitors what the future of transportation is going to be. Transportation genius, Elon Musk, has developed what could be a fifth form of transportation. The hyperloop is a tube with a capsule inside that uses an air compressor to create energy to propel the capsule forward. The capsule uses air to glide along through the tube like an air hockey table along with magnetic levitation, allowing it to move at speeds up to 700 mph because there is no friction in a vacuum state. Visitors will be able to work with a miniature model of a hyper loop and send a mini capsule back and forth through the tube using a pneumatic pump. Mobile Version Many of our activities can be transferred to a mobile bus that can travel around the Kansas City area to teach kids about the science behind flight physics. Our ideas include remote control hovercrafts, a mini-­‐pneumatic tube with magnetic levitation capsules to demonstrate the hyperloop, a computer version of the flight bird game, and a craft station where kids can build their own Bernoulli and flight experiments with ping pong balls and paper airplanes. Student Involvement As a class, we really gained a tremendous amount of knowledge about physics during the creation of this exhibit. After doing the initial research on the history and future of transportation, we determined our major guiding questions and were broken up into groups to gain a deeper understanding of each question. We relied on much of the information presented through on the Air and Space site from the Smithsonian Museum, and also viewed videos put forth by Bill Nye and our favorite: MINUTE PHYSICS on You Tube! To learn more about the Hyperloop, we kept up to date on the newest developments. The plan was actually announced while we worked on the exhibit so we read reviews online and watched internet news clips. We were very relieved to find out that, although the idea seems far-­‐fetched, many physicists are in agreement that it is a very plausible form of transportation. Once a week, we met in groups and made numerous sketches and revisions to come up with the perfect design. Our class is very active in the Greater Kansas City Science Fair so we wanted to make sure that the exhibits gave visitors a chance to manipulate variables in the activities to reach their own understanding. We worked very well together, but there were instances when ideas had to be put by the wayside because we just couldn’t put every idea into our proposal. The first “failure” we encountered was the fact that we REALLY wanted to figure out how to make kids actually fly. Our ideas were funny – including a giant slide with a ramp. We quickly learned through studying the forces of flight that there is no way a human could develop that much thrust via a slide. We also studied Leonardo Davinci’s flying machine to see if we could recreate one of our own, but also discovered that we wouldn’t have enough space in the exhibit to gain enough speed to take off. We also debated a lot about the bumper hovercrafts. One of our idea variations included hover scooter races instead of hover bumper cars. After discussion, we decided that the bumper cars seemed safer. Finally, we also were set on finding a zero gravity chamber. We learned, though, that the concept of “zero” gravity is incorrect because gravity always exists (even in space.) We did find where people can experience reduced gravity in flight and the fact that NASA uses swimming pools to train astronauts, but everyone agreed that wasn’t a great idea for our exhibit. Future of the Exhibit We feel that this experiment will draw audiences in and keep them engaged. It will last for years because the principles behind flight and manipulating air pressure are timeless. The area of the experiment that could perhaps evolve over time is the hyperloop, but we feel that new developments could easily be shared through changes in signage over time. For example, as designs evolve over time new diagrams could be displayed that shows the progression of the capsules and tube. This will be a great lesson for visitors in learning how many of our new advancements in transportation are all based on principles and ideas developed by great scientific discoveries of the past by greats like Isaac Newton and Daniel Bernoulli. Who knows? Maybe students will be inspired to invent their own form of transportation after discovering how gravity can be overcome. Material List Item Epson3 LCD Projector Mustang projector Mount Kinect Wall Mount Xbox 360 4GB w/Kinect Programmer Leaf Blowers Spindles of Satin Bicycle Pump Plastic Funnel Large Bells 4” PVC Pipes Plywood Sheets Leaf Blower Heavy Duty Shower Curtains Duct Tape Form Pipe Insulation Pneumatic Vacuum Tube Canister 4” clear PVC Air Compressor Fan Spirit Laser Fog Machine – Multi Color Omega Wind Tunnel Poly Planner MP3 Kit w/small speakers Grainger Plastic Roll Torque Arm Price $319.99 $33.98 Quantity 1 1 Sub-­‐Total 319.99 33.98 $6.32 $289.99 $100.00/hr $210.00 $21.00 $16.00 $16.00 $28.00 $10.00 $140.00 $268.00 $40.00 1 1 20 7 5 4 4 4 48 4 4 4 6.32 289.99 2,000.00 1,470.00 150.00 64.00 54.00 112.00 480.00 560.00 1072.00 160.00 $7.00 $2.00 $29.99 4 8 1 28.00 16.00 29.99 $32.53 $15.00 $199.00 10 1 1 325.30 15.00 199.00 $8,999.95 $159.00 1 6 8,999.95 954.00 $376.00 $983.00 1 1 Total 375.00 983.00 Sketches Bumper Hover Crafts Forces of Flight Bird Simulation Bernoulli’s Arcade Games Aerodynamics Wind Tunnel Hyperloop Pneumatic Tube Exhibit Floor Plan