Saturday, March 22, 2008
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Eighth Meeting: Nalgenes
On Friday (March 14), the science club met for the first time in 7 weeks (the 7th meeting didn't count) in order to try to break some Nalgene bottles.
We put an Estes model rocket D engine in the first one and ignited it. It smoked a ton, spun around a lot, and ended up with hole burned in one side and some meltiness.
The freshmen took the next one and dropped big rocks on it over a drain. The bottle broke their first rock, but eventually they broke it (and subsequently broke the first bottle some more).
The third one (a smaller variant) we half-buried in the mud of the softball field and filled with another D engine, plus some ethanol. The first engine didn't do enough damage, so we tried again. It got very melty, but actually survived relatively intact. Interesting.
We'll have some video soon...
We put an Estes model rocket D engine in the first one and ignited it. It smoked a ton, spun around a lot, and ended up with hole burned in one side and some meltiness.
The freshmen took the next one and dropped big rocks on it over a drain. The bottle broke their first rock, but eventually they broke it (and subsequently broke the first bottle some more).
The third one (a smaller variant) we half-buried in the mud of the softball field and filled with another D engine, plus some ethanol. The first engine didn't do enough damage, so we tried again. It got very melty, but actually survived relatively intact. Interesting.
We'll have some video soon...
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Seventh Meeting: Nothing
I (Toph) have been sick since Monday, so I missed clubs yesterday, and I hear it pretty much just didn't happen. But we'll see you Feb. 22! :) We have some bridge-building materials left over from last year, so maybe we'll try to, y'know, build something. I'll try to keep this blog updated as we get more info. But for now, there's nothing much to say.
Friday, February 01, 2008
RIP Columbia
Five years ago today, the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon reentry into the atmosphere. Once again: we're lucky nothing is riding on our model rockets.
Monday, January 28, 2008
RIP Challenger
Twenty two years ago today, the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds after liftoff. We're lucky all of our rockets are unmanned.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Sixth Meeting: Glorious Eggs, Philosophy
EDIT: Hey look, we were featured on the Beaver web site, with pictures and everything!
Friday's meeting was, in a word, glorious. We started out by just taping two rocket engines to an egg facing opposite directions--it spun and whirred and when the smoke cleared the egg was just plain old gone. And then we launched Vivek's group's 2-stage egg rocket, which sort of hovered in the air for a moment before dropping to the ground. And when the first engine ignited the second, the first got shot out the back and off it went. It actually caught on fire, and it was burning quite nicely before Ms. Nickerson cruelly put it out. Too bad. The warmth was much appreciated while it lasted. And for the final one, we tried igniting three engines at once. And, well, two of them went!
Video: BSEC: Sixth Meeting (Third Year)
Ineconomies of Scale
Unfortunately, our attendance dropped to the lowest it's been all year on Friday. It's too bad, since it was such an entertaining meeting. But we inevitably reach this point every year--the point where seemingly overnight, half the club disappears. We're completely to blame, of course. We've never been even remotely organized, and there's just not enough stuff for 40 people to do every meeting.
But today's meeting only confirmed what many club members have known for a long time: with very few people, we can be very productive.
So we've been thinking. What if we had "do" meetings and "view" meetings? I feel bad that all members are obliged to go to all meetings, even the ones where nothing happens. So what if a core group prepared things for everyone else to watch at perscribed times? It would be even better if we could get everyone actively involved, of course--for instance, by splitting into subclubs with different foci, like model rocketry or potato guns or robotics. But we're not sure we can pull that off. Everything is completely undecided right now--let us know what you think in the comments.
(Note also that even if we don't announce when we'll be shooting off the rockets, there's a simple formula: come late. But not too late, of course. I'd say 12:20 is when things typically get going. Although actually, today we were shockingly speedy getting the first rocket egg launched....)
Friday's meeting was, in a word, glorious. We started out by just taping two rocket engines to an egg facing opposite directions--it spun and whirred and when the smoke cleared the egg was just plain old gone. And then we launched Vivek's group's 2-stage egg rocket, which sort of hovered in the air for a moment before dropping to the ground. And when the first engine ignited the second, the first got shot out the back and off it went. It actually caught on fire, and it was burning quite nicely before Ms. Nickerson cruelly put it out. Too bad. The warmth was much appreciated while it lasted. And for the final one, we tried igniting three engines at once. And, well, two of them went!
Video: BSEC: Sixth Meeting (Third Year)
Ineconomies of Scale
Unfortunately, our attendance dropped to the lowest it's been all year on Friday. It's too bad, since it was such an entertaining meeting. But we inevitably reach this point every year--the point where seemingly overnight, half the club disappears. We're completely to blame, of course. We've never been even remotely organized, and there's just not enough stuff for 40 people to do every meeting.
But today's meeting only confirmed what many club members have known for a long time: with very few people, we can be very productive.
So we've been thinking. What if we had "do" meetings and "view" meetings? I feel bad that all members are obliged to go to all meetings, even the ones where nothing happens. So what if a core group prepared things for everyone else to watch at perscribed times? It would be even better if we could get everyone actively involved, of course--for instance, by splitting into subclubs with different foci, like model rocketry or potato guns or robotics. But we're not sure we can pull that off. Everything is completely undecided right now--let us know what you think in the comments.
(Note also that even if we don't announce when we'll be shooting off the rockets, there's a simple formula: come late. But not too late, of course. I'd say 12:20 is when things typically get going. Although actually, today we were shockingly speedy getting the first rocket egg launched....)
Monday, January 21, 2008
Fifth Meeting: More Egg Stuff
On January 11 we had our fifth meeting of the year. Because of bad weather, we didn't have a chance to finish off the egg launch contest, and most people left early. But those who didn't fiddled with strapping model rocket engines right onto the eggs themselves. Video coming soon.
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Fourth Meeting: Egg Launch
On Friday, November 30, we began our third annual egg launch contest. We are now divided into three groups, and from what I've seen we all made good progress. (I hear Peter's group has already started testing!) We'll try to finish up and actually get them launched next meeting.
Normally I say "video coming soon" or whatever. This time I won't bother. Frankly, there's not a whole lot to report....... yet. :)
Normally I say "video coming soon" or whatever. This time I won't bother. Frankly, there's not a whole lot to report....... yet. :)
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