Rocket Launches

We launched a whole bunch of rockets on the lower field at an (unofficial) club meeting on Friday, Oct. 8. Here are some videos, courtesy of Joe Barnard:

This was actually before clubs started this year. It's actually the lamest rocket kit ever… the fins and launch lug are one big plastic bit that is held on just by fitting tightly–no glue–and apart from that there's the shock cord/mount/streamer thing, the nose cone, the body tube, and the thrust ring…

This one is awesome. It's an Estes Eagle boost glider, meaning it's a glider hooked onto a rocket. When the streamer ejects on the rocket, the glider is knocked loose and flies around a bit. Though it landed in a tree, we have recovered it now and will launch it again later…

I TOLD NICKS AND CLIP IT WAS A BAD IDEA TO ANGLE IT INTO THE WIND.

This is the Snapshot. It's meant to take pictures but it needs some kind of fancy film… and now it's in the graveyard…

…And… the X-Wing. Clearly designed for looks and not stability.

Not pictured is Joe's Estes Wizard, a tiny little one that (although we didn't know at the time) is apparently designed to fly VERY VERY HIGH. We put a B in thinking it'd not go very far but be recoverable… but boy were we wrong… It ZOOMED up and then we saw something falling very fast into someone's yard. I think either the ejection charge didn't eject the streamer or the rocket exploded. Nicks insisted it had to be a C engine, but we counted how long it took in the video and determined it to be a B6.

Welcome to 2010/11!

The BSEC continues into the 2010/11 school year! We are under new management:

John French–Co-President

Joe Barnard–Co-President

Noah Goldstein–Co-Vice-President

Diego Fiore–Co-Vice-President

And we are going to do lots of awesome things! For instance we are planning a huge and awesome rocket launch, which will include the ginormous E-powered Mean Machine and possibly an F-powered flight (if we can figure out how to do that…) as well as an attempt to launch the 10 or so Sword rockets that everyone (attempted to) build at once, and a couple of boost gliders! It'll be exciting.

We also have some thermite in the closet… And dry ice will certainly return…

Any ideas? Post them in the comments!

Welcome the Second Administration

In one final act of mismanagement, I sent out an obnoxious email yesterday before lunch asking folks to come by to see some thermite and to find out the results of our election. You see, I was going to announce that stuff at Morning Meeting, but we had no announcement time. But I was still in the mindset of wanting to announce it in person or whatever, so I tried for the next best thing. Of course, I completely overlooked the fact that all Juniors were off-campus. Oops! (We didn't do any thermite yesterday, FYI.)

So let's just do this. None of this "bait" stuff. The results of our close election are:

THE SECOND BSEC ADMINISTRATION

President: Willy Tucker
Senior Vice President: Brooke Parker
Junior Vice President: Sam Lynch

Assistant Vice Presidents:
Sarah Barrié
Sabrina Brown
Luke Fraser

(Everyone gets a title! Woohoo!!! :) )

Thanks for a great three years, folks! I'll be in touch...

Final Meeting Preview: Thermite!!!

Tomorrow, as many of you may realize, is a special day. It's senior send-off. It's our (seniors') last day of classes. (So sad...) And last but not least, it is the final meeting of the 2007-2008 season of the science club.

If you go to one meeting all year, I'd recommend you go to this one. We are very pleased to say that we have procured a bit of thermite for fiery fun. We basically have no clue what we're doing, but that's what adult supervision is for. :) Thermite burns at 4,500 degrees Fahrenheit.

Here's a video of some experts playing with thermite. And here's a few kids who have hardly any clue what they're doing.

ADDITIONALLY, and even more important in the long term, we're voting for next year's leaders of the science club. (If you want to be on the ballot but haven't talked to me, please reply ASAP.)

By the way, re: the thermite--it'll melt basically ANYTHING, so if anyone has any ideas, bring something in. We're also looking for someone to bring in an old cast-iron pot or pan that will not be returned (aside from maybe as a glob of melty metal) or some dry sand. Let me know.

I hope to see you all there! It's shaping up to be a great final meeing!

Tenth Meeting: The Shape of Things to Come

(Ninth real meeting. :))

Today we had a nice little meeting. We were supposed to work on our bridges, but that's sort of falling apart, haha. But Willy did a random little rocket thing, and we talked about the future. The Petovek Administration is nearing its end; we have just one meeting left (and early signs are that it'll be an especially good one...).

A new era approaches. When Year Four begins, it will be under entirely new leadership. Our survey a couple weeks ago asked whether people were interested in being one of that new batch of leaders. Nine people said maybe or yes. I've emailed those people; if you didn't get it but are still interested in a leadership position, please let me (Toph) know.

The gist of it is that in a week or so, we'll send out a list of candidates, and you guys will vote. And something like the top 3 finishers will be our new fearless leaders. That'll be a little later; this is for now just a heads-up.

But in addition to co-presidents, we have a couple special positions open: Blogger and videographer. We want our work here to continue, so that folks who can't come can still read about and see some of the stuff we do. If you're interested in taking over the blog, or if you're interested in filming our meetings and putting them on YouTube, or both, please let me know.

Final comment: the T-shirt issue. On surveys, 9/15 people said they'd buy one, 4 said maybe, two said no. So that seems pretty positive, but we just don't know where to go with it. If anyone has any t-shirt ideas--designs, text, etc.--please let me know.

Video coming soon. Maybe. :)

Is it immoral to want to be immortal?

Humanity has strived toward immortality for thousands of years. Chances are it's not exactly right around the corner, but without a doubt, people are living longer. How far is too far to go?

MSNBC.com: "Buying time?" section
Opinion: It's not immoral to want to be immortal

Ninth Building: Bridges

Today we had a quiet little meeting; we got started on building some little bridges out of wood sticks. They have to be 2 feet long and at least 6 cm wide. The goal is for your bridge to support more weight (hung from the bottom) than the other team's.

Next meeting we'll finish them and test them. And then, since it's one of the last meetings before the seniors take off, we can burn a few bridges on our way out. Ha! Get it? It's a pun.

But knowing us, it'll also probably come true.

DIY: How To Shoot Fireballs

Make a Fireball Shooter! - video powered by Metacafe

DIY: How To Shoot Fireballs

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...

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.

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.

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.

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....)

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.

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. :)

Third Meeting: Kid Pix, Potato Rocket and Target

We started off the meeting with a healthy dose of Kid Pix. Once it became clear that we wouldn't get anything done for at least 20 minutes, I felt bad and let everyone go. But a select few stayed behind, and were rewarded for their patience. Willy stuck a rocket engine in a potato, and we took a few shots at the trusty old target--which, by the way, got a nice shout-out during the Cum Laude assembly the other day. :) Video coming soon.

UPDATE Feb. 9: OK, so the video probably isn't coming soon, but you can spot a quick clip of this meeting in the video montage over at The Beaver Reader.

Second Meeting: Nocka Rockets

Our dear onetime member Andrew Nocka may have left us for the UK, but his spirit lives on in the noble tradition of Nocka Rockets. Today we fired a few off, including a sort of corkscrew one and one with wings. Plus we ate cake. :)


Video: BSEC: Second Meeting (Third Year)

First Meeting: Dry Ice and Potato Gun

We held our first meeting of this year on October 5, and I think it went pretty well. We played with dry ice and the potato gun. I've posted a video recap below.

One thing that we're aware of is that there was quite a bit of waiting, and we didn't have a chance for everyone in the club to really get involved. That's a hard thing to do with forty people, which is why we may experiment with breaking into multiple groups at our next meeting.

If anyone has any other comments, feel free to email Peter, Vivek, or me, or leave a comment on this post.

I know I had a lot of fun, and we look forward to seeing you again this Friday! We'll be playing with rockets, potato guns (bulding our own!!), and using magical chemistry skills unlike the world has ever seen, making silly putty. :)

Year 3 Begins

On Friday we announced the third year of the Beaver Science and Engineering Club. Unfortunately, Vivek could not be present, but at the last minute he beamed us this transmission from space:

"Dear Students of Beaver Country Day School,

"I am sorry I was unable to partake in this ceremonial gathering to commemorate the 3rd annual BSEC initiation, for I too am partaking in a ceremony of galactic proportions. Yes... that's right...I'm on the moon--that glowing white object you see in the sky every night. I would have come back, but... it would seem that upon arrival of this dusty, mountainous abyss of moon world that my space ship found its way deep, deep, deep into a giant cavity on the moon's surface.

"In other words, I got stuck in a crater.

"I give my sincerest apologies, and I... [radio cut off] ...Great Oz! They have eyes... red eyes... and tentacles... Mr. Adjout, help me!"

We wish the best of luck to Vivek and his crew.

On a happier note, this year we had a record 36 sign-ups, plus the three co-presidents and two faculty advisors for a grand total of 41 members. Our first meeting will be Friday, October 5. Hope to see you all there!

- Toph

P.S. If this is your first time looking around the blog, here's a link to a few BSEC videos from the past.

Make a Radio

We've tried this before, with very limited success. Maybe this will work for you:

Link