All of the physics classes at both high schools were assigned to make a boat out of cardboard, duct tape, and plastic bags. It could not be a raft. It had to had sides. Ores were provided. They had to paddle it across the Boerne City Pool. If they made it both ways then they got 100. One way they got a 95 and if it just sunk then they got a 90.
I thought it was cool that Matthew did some math and came out with the above diagram. This made the boat. They just had to fold it up.
They also did the math to figure out how far the boat would sink with their combined weight. I didn't even know you could do that. Once I thought about it, it made sense but I had never thought about it before.
We decided to test it out in our pool.
Michaela could not ride in the boat for the actual project because of her back surgery. Matthew had the task of finding someone to take her place. I can just imagine him standing up in his physics class and saying "I need someone that weighs this much to ride in my boat with me". That didn't really happen. Michaela found someone for him.
Well, Matthew and Michaela got a 90 on their boat. The boat flipped and then sunk. Matthew thinks the base was not wide enough.
I am against school projects done at home in general. They are a lot of work and most of the time I don't see the benefit. This project was great. I actually saw the point and they had fun at the same time.
1 comment:
Looks like an awesome prject. Good thing you have a pool to test it in. My kids would love that. Is Matthew a future engineer?
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