How to build an archimedes boat?

How to build an archimedes boat?

• Each team will construct, on site, a boat using only a 300 mm by 300 mm piece of Aluminum Foil. We will provide the foil and the pennies. Your goal is to make a boat that will carry the most washers. The boat must float unloaded for at least 77 seconds to count as a boat. Your team will have a limited amount of time to build, float and load your boat. ~can anyone please give me tips on how to win the contest?~~ thanks

• Answer:

  wikipedia.org "On Floating Bodies (2 volumes) In the first part of this scroll, Archimedes spells out the law of equilibrium of fluids, and proves that water will adopt a spherical form around a center of gravity. This was probably an attempt at explaining the observation made by Greek astronomers that the Earth is round. Note that his fluids are not self-gravitating: he assumes the existence of a point towards which all things fall and derives the spherical shape. One is led to wonder what he would have done had he struck upon the idea of universal gravitation. In the second part, a veritable tour-de-force, he calculates the equilibrium positions of sections of paraboloids. This was probably an idealization of the shapes of ships' hulls. Some of his sections float with the base under water and the summit above water, which is reminiscent of the way icebergs float, although Archimedes probably was not thinking of this application. " OK - I thought that this might be easy to research, however, your teachers have come up with a good one as it does not seem that you can use a direct search to find much. So, now we try some other ideas: * my gut feel is that you should turn up the edges of the foil to create a pan type struture (think of your mothers deep pans with 3" to 4" side - roll the edges for strength and bold the corners in). This would be a version of a flat boat. You should practice to ensure that it works. * also, why not try to contact some actual boat engineers! - try searching under "aluminum boats" and see if you can sent them emails to try to talk to an actual boat engineer. * I would also suggest trying to contact makers of aluminum foils to see if any of their engineers could give you any ideas. * Since this type of contest is run at other locations, you might also try tracking down some of the past winners to see what they learned and what their secrets were. * then try looking for foil boat !!! http://juniorengineering.usu.edu/workshops/buoyancy/boats.html http://www.new-sng.com/foilboat.cfm http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/Lessons.cfm?DocID=143 http://pbskids.org/zoom/activities/sci/boatsafloat.html http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/phy00/phy00291.htm http://www.nps.gov/archive/miss/programs/brj/brjactivities/aluboat.html http://education.jlab.org/beamsactivity/6thgrade/designandengineering/designandengineering.pdf http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/lessons.cfm?BenchmarkID=3&DocID=143 http://www.lessonplanspage.com/ScienceWillTheBoatSinkOrFloat4.htm http://www.monroe2boces.org/programs.cfm?subpage=955 http://www.nps.gov/archive/miss/programs/brj/brjpdfs/aluboat.pdf http://users.marshall.edu/~bady/rsi/4th/4bouyancy.html http://www97.intel.com/en/ProjectDesign/UnitPlanIndex/FloatThatBoat/ * Ah Ha - and the secret is (as I suspected): http://www.nps.gov/miss/forteachers/brjralumboat.htm Note to teacher: Give students the opportunity to be as creative as possible with the hull shape. Make no suggestions, unless to show how to fold up one side to make an edge. The best designs are flat barges with small sides. The placement of pennies also makes a difference in the number held. The record for one sheet of 8" x 12" foil is around 280 pennies. Recycle the foil along with your pop cans. Science Museum of Minnesota, 2001. OK, now that you know how to win the contest, I would still recommend contacting the engineers at the boat companies and the aluminum foil companies and be ready to talk about what you learn as you win the contest. You will impress the judges so much with your knolwedge and skill of floating all those pennies that they will have to give you the prize. Good Luck.