| Science
in Boston MIT, Boston Museum of Science |
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We walked the "Infinite Corridor," a very long, straight hallway that connects many buildings. Harrison counted his steps, and found that the corridor was 445 "H-Steps" long. We got to sit in on a physics lecture. Harrison reports, "The lecture was about torque and inertia. Torque is a rotational force, like spinning a bicycle tire. The Professor spun the wheel and tried to twist it right to left, but it twisted at a different angle. It did that because there was a force called angular momentum that added up with the right-to-left twisting force (another torque) and made a different angle. We tried it ourselves, and it is really freaky!" "Dad taught me that there is a cool way to figure out the direction of angular momentum, called the right-hand rule. First, make a thumbs up sign with your right fist. Your fingers curl in the direction of the wheel's spin. Your thumb points in the direction of the Angular Momentum." "I figured that torque is the derivative of angular momentum. A derivative is like an impetus." After MIT, we went to the Boston Museum of Science, and had a great afternoon learning about other forces. |
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Dad note: The sand made this design because the pendulum had two different chains, making it a 2 vector pendulum. The top chain made it swing back-and-forth, and the bottom chain would swing left-to-right. This is like the torque discussion above: the direction of the swing was the sum of the two vectors. |
Janice Vancleave's Physics for Every Kid : 101 Easy Experiments in Motion, Heat, Light, Machines, and Sound (Science for Every Kid) by Janice Pratt VanCleave |
) This
exhibit shows how streams of water are made up of drops of water. Except
in this case its not water, it is antifreeze, so don't drink it!
Harrison describes how this works: "A strobe light flashes rapidly so you only see a fraction of the stream at a time. The fluid comes out of the tubes as a stream and breaks up as it accelerates down." "You could change the frequency of the strobe flashing. When you turn it fast, it looked like the fluid was flowing up. Of course, when the flashing is slower, it looks like it is going down." "It looked cool when the two streams collided, and also when it hit the cup. You could see two balls of fluid combining and spreading out. When it hit the bottom you could see the parts of a splash." |
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) This
is a modified version of Archimedes screw. He invented this in about 250bce.
The tube is twisted around a cylinder. If you twist the cylinder, the tube scoops up water and carries it up to the top. This is one of the best examples of a truly useful but very simple machine. This same idea is used in pumps, screws, gears and such. |
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) There
was a K'Nex room, with a bunch of really cool K'Nex creations. There were
three dinosaurs with moving heads that were five feet high, and a Statue
of Liberty. We spent about an hour making our own K'Nex creations.
Amanda remembered, "We got to make a space shuttle that we could keep for a souvenir. My dad started to make a big space shuttle because he thought the little ones were whimpy, but mom had to finish it for him." Harrison: "There was a daily challenge, and that days was building a bridge that could hold twelve large tires. To be a bridge, it couldn't have any support in the middle. That is called a span. Dad and I both took the challenge and made bridges. Mine is the one in front, and dad's is the one in back. As you can see, my bridge did hold the weight." |
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Harrison
and Rob went with our cousin David to see MIT, Massachusetts Institute
of Technology. MIT is famous for its physics department, where many
of today's greatest scientists worked.
)
365
Simple Science Experiments With Everyday Materials