|
|
Post by silverdragon on Oct 20, 2017 6:20:30 GMT
Welcome to the board, as you may note, we sort of started a few things you may want to take a look at, and on the various threads about here, there are many more.
Any thread, new, not so now, or dormant, if you have any questions, just ask?.
Otherwise, dont hesitate to join other threads if you have time?.
|
|
|
|
Post by ironhold on Oct 20, 2017 16:20:25 GMT
Another thing to remember is that all of us regulars have areas in which we could be considered "experts", up to and including some rather solid credentials. And this isn't just with science, either, but a lot of other academic and vocational fields as well.
Depending upon the topic that your kids want to learn about, this place is almost as good as a proper academy.
|
|
|
|
Post by Cybermortis on Oct 20, 2017 18:03:43 GMT
You know, one fun project you might be able to do is look at the splinter wound myth Mythbusters did years ago in one of the pirate specials.
A quick recap; Basically the myth was that splinters of wood created when a cast iron cannonball hit the hull of a ship were more dangerous to the crew than the cannonball itself.
Mythbusters concluded this was busted, however many fans (myself included) were not happy about this conclusion since the historical records regarding sailors being injured and killed by such splinters is just too extensive. Further investigation by myself concluded that MB's testing was actually valid, but only within a specific period in which the episode was based.
I ended up some time later theorising that what was actually going on was the speed of the projectile on impact being the major factor. The theory I had was that slower moving projectiles would create larger, and hence more dangerous, splinters of wood than faster moving projectiles. One of the members of this board actually tested this out with two air rifles of different muzzle velocities. Reporting that the lower velocity rifle created larger spinters that flew further when fired into a wooden plank.
This might be an interesting thing to test and film, if not with an actual cannon. I'm thinking that as a filmed group project it could be especially interesting if posted on YouTube. (I'm in a position to make some of MB's research department aware of such a video, although that's as much as I could promise). If it looks interesting enough they might even consider doing a revisit of sorts, maybe using that video as the reason for testing - so *could* potentually in that case actually include part of that video in an episode.
Food for thought.
|
|
|
|
Post by mrfatso on Oct 20, 2017 18:25:35 GMT
One idea Imjust had is to do with the growth of crystals and grain size when rapidly cooled or slowly cooled.
Different types of sweets or candies have different textures some have a smooth texture to to small grains in it, and rock candy has large grains of sucrose on it this is due to the speed a which the sugar syrup from which they were created was cooled to to room temperature. Rapid cooling creates small grains, slow cooling a coarser grain structure.
The same principle applies to the growth of crystals in other fields of science, in Geology an igneous melt of an acid competition can form a rock called rhyolite with rapid cooling when it erupts as a lava or granite if it is an intrusive body that cools slowly.
To show this you could boil sugar syrup and cool some down rapidly by pouring it onto a metal tray that has been chilled in a freezer, and another portion onto a tray that has been left at room temperature and then another portion left to cool down in the vessel it was heated in.
If not sugar syrup perhaps another substrate that melts at a lower temperature like wax could be used, but using sugar ties in withthe various candies types that could be used as examples.
|
|
