Third Meeting: Van de Graaff Generator & Rocket Dune Buggy

Last Friday, the 10th of November, we held our third meeting. We started off by playing around with a Van de Graaff generator, which went quite well. I've never seen so many people so eager to hurt themselves. It's a bit disconcerting, actually.

We started off with some, ahem, shocking high-fives. Then it progressed to fist pounds and even a slap or two accross the face. Several people formed a long chain to extend their collective reach.

Then, by special request, we learned a bit about nukes. Unfortunately, the person who requested it was absent that day, so it was totally pointless and I apologize for wasting your precious time.

Once we were done with that we strapped a rocket engine to Tyler's GI Joe dune buggy. Unfortunately, it was a lot heavier than I had anticipated, so we sent it... uh... flying a whole ten feet. :) Well, to look on the bright side, that's about 8 feet farther than I thought it would go.

Check out the videos:


Video: VanDeGraaf Shocks All


Video: Rocket Car

Second Meeting and Harvest Fest: Success! (ish)

Sorry this update is coming a little late. I've been super-busy. Anyway, without further ado:

Second Meeting

We had our second club meeting last Friday. Vivek started us off by leading us through the steps of making some silly putty as preparation for our Harvest Fest booth. Once everything was up and running smoothly, I (and a small breakaway contingent) began to quickly assemble a camera rocket and prepare it for launch. Yearbook Club had come around toward the beginning of club block to take club photos, but we thought we could do better with an aerial shot.

Unfortunately, we had trouble getting the film to advance and decided to launch the rocket from the Lower Field without enabling the camera. It was a fairly windy day, so we made sure to angle the launch rod away from the school (and into the wind). Countdown and liftoff went smoothly, but the wind had died down slightly - we had overcompensated for it. As the rocket deployed its parachute and ejected several pieces of flame-proof wadding (each a small speck in the sky), we lost track of exactly what was what. It came down somewhere in the vicinity of the graveyard, the next-door neighbor, or Hammond Street.

Twenty or so high schoolers soon flooded the neighbor's property and fanned out to look for our rocket. It must have been a strange sight for the puzzled folks staring out the first-floor window at us. Almost immediately Peter jumped up onto the rock wall the separated the neighbors from the graveyard, and before long a large portion of our group had jumped the wall.

Our search was in vain, however. Despite our considerable manpower we never did find the rocket. Perhaps it was just as well that we never managed to arm the camera.

Harvest Fest

On Saturday was Beaver's annual Harvest Fest. For the first time, the BSEC had a booth (or two) of its own.

Segway

The first things people were likely to notice upon entering the Green Gym were two i-series Segway HTs gliding around a test track. This proved to be quite a popular attraction; the waiting list was full from setup time to shutdown time. At one point the wait was around 45 minutes long, yet still people found the rides worthwhile. The 11th Grade (with whom we shared the Green Gym) accused us of stealing their customers, but in truth I think we only attracted more people to the area. Cross-promotion is a powerful thing!

Many expressed frustration with never having a chance to take a Segway ride, so we'll think about doing this again sometime.

Silly Putty

Hampered somewhat by a lack of club helpers (thank you Emily, David & Co. for keeping it running), the silly putty booth was nevertheless a very enjoyable diversion from long wait times. I was busy the whole time at the Segway and 11th Grade booths, so if anyone has any silly putty tales to tell, please do so in the comments.

Third Meeting Plans

Unfortunately we're not quite sure what we're doing at our next meeting. Our tentative plan is to build potato guns, but there are some liability concerns. (No, a simple waiver wouldn't solve those problems.) But don't worry - we have several backup plans. Whatever we do, it'll be cool. Stay tuned.

Second Meeting is Tomorrow

It's been a long three weeks, but the BSEC's second meeting is finally nearly upon us! Tomorrow in clubs we'll be putting our science/chemistry skills to good use and making silly putty, as well as (probably) shooting off a potato or rocket or something. Fun fun!

We'll also be planning two most important things:

1. Our Harvest Fest booth, which will feature Segway rides and silly-putty-making demonstrations,
2. and our third meeting, when we'll actually get to make our own potato guns!

We'll have a report on how it all went sometime in the next few days.

Potato Gun v. Balloons

Any guesses what'll happen? Mmm? Any?

We tried this in the club Friday, but didn't have time to get it to work. Well, today we did. Enjoy... and start thinking about what we should shoot at our next meeting!


Video: Potato Gun v. Balloons

P.S. Sorry about the totally out-of-sync audio...
EDIT: Fixed audio by using MSN Soapbox instead of YouTube.

Fun Possibilities: Beer Cannon, Flaming Visualizer, & Hovercraft Ideas

Beer Cannon:



More info


Flaming Visualizer




More info

Hovercraft Ideas:
Here

Vivek's Breaking News Report

Vivek: “ZOMG TOP STORY! It has been reported by friendly, as well as hostile news affiliates that there is a tremendous decline in the scientific arena.

“Scientific research reaches luxury as proper funding can no longer keep pace with inflation. Fewer Nobel Prizes are offered, and published scientific research went down from 61% to a measly 29%.

“Wait, this just in…

“Japanese researchers have just completed their first working prototype for the ultimate, indestructible, infallible, unassailable, impervious, metallic, rock-solid, ubercool, ultra dooper…robotic super doggie.

“Could things get any worse?

“Fortunately, we have Dr. Knowsitall here with a solution to this…catastrophe. Dr. Knowsitall?”

Dr. Knowsital: “mmmblmbblmblmbalmbmblmlmeblmlmlmlbm... the only solution is to join the nearest science club!”

Vivek: “That’s it folks….JOIN the NEAREST SCIENCE CLUB. Back to you Toph!”

BSEC Year 2: Twice the Membership, 10x the Fun (or so we hope...)

Today, club presidents announced the year's clubs and people signed up. Following a report on the state of scientific affairs in the United States by correspondent Vivek Pai, featuring an interview with acclaimed researcher Dr. Michael Firer, Ph. D., on his response to the latest developments in Japan. We'll try to get a full transcript online ASAP.

People were apparently so traumatized that they signed up in troves - we have twice as many members as last year. Hoorah! Glad to have you all aboard. :)

Last year one of our issues was that we had large gaps in between fun activities. This year, we're going to do something cool every single meeting. That's our pledge to you.

So start thinking about fun ideas, and we'll see you all at our first meeting. (That'll be either this Friday the 29th or the week after, October 6th, depending on how the A Block/B Block thing works out. I'll post that here and on the club board when we find out.)

Gearing up for Another Year

As I write them I'm also working on the club application form that I hope will allow BSEC to continue for a second year. I'll admit that we didn't get a whole lot done last year, but we have much more lined up this time. We'll call last year a training run. :)

In other news, here's a pretty nifty video some guy put on Google Video - 8,500 bottle rockets: