Mini-Scientist Project Form
School
All work included in this project has been completed by our pupils
and as such is subject to copyright
© Scoil Bhríde Leixlip, Co. Kildare.
Student
Name(s)
Denis,Conor,Ethan.
Class
5th
Teacher
Ms. Brosnan
Project Title
HOVERCRAFTERS
Short
This project is all about air pressure,
Description of
the Project
hovercrafts and how they work.
Introduction
Why did you do the project?
We started this project because we wanted to know more about air
pressure, hovercrafts and how they work and we wanted to make a
model of a mini-hovercraft.
What did you hope to learn?
We wanted to know more about air pressure and hovercrafts and
how they work.
We used these ‘key questions’ to guide our investigation
1. What is a hovercraft?
2. How does a hovercraft work?
3. What is air pressure?
Main information
These are our main findings:
1. We made a mini hovercraft from a balloon, a bottle cap
and a C.D. We found out that it works well on smooth
surfaces but not on wet or rough surfaces. A balloon and a
bottle move on water.Trapped air currents underneath the
hovercraft can create an air cushion on any smooth
surface,land or water.
2. A balloon is not enough to make a bottle fly,just barely
hover because the bottle and C.D. are too heavy for the
balloon to lift.
3. Air resistance is the fractional force air exerts against a
moving object as an object moves, air resistance slows it
down. The faster the object’s motion, the greater the air
resistance exerted against it.
4.A hovercraft is also called an Air Cushion Vehicle or
ACV.This is a vehicle that flies like a plane but can float like
a boat, can drive on land like a car but will traverse ditches
and small gullies like it is flat terrain. The hovercraft is an
unique method of transportation. Modern hovercraft are
used for many applications where people or equipment need
to travel at speed over water but be able to load and unload
on land. The hovercraft engine provides the power to drive
large fans that blow air under the craft. The air is retained
by a rubber ‘skirt’ that enables the craft to travel over a
wide range of terrain. The skirt simply gives way when an
obstacle is encountered.The engine also supplies power to a
thrust propeller of some kind that pushes the craft forward
on its ‘bubble’ of air. Rudders, like on a airplane, steer the
direction of the craft. So how did this craft come to be
designed, who worked on the design and who invented the
Hovercraft? Well, it all started with two tin cans and a
vacuum cleaner……… ‘Discover the Hovercraft’ tells you how
and when it all happened.
Hovercraft Designs
Facts About Air Resistance
1: Direction Of Straight Object
The air resistance comes in up direction when it acts on the falling down object. The gravity will
push the object down, but the air resistance pushes the object up.
2: Left or Right Direction
To find out the direction of an air resistance, you have to check out the direction of their falling
object. The air resistance works on the opposite direction when the object falls right or left.
Air resistance and force
3: Factors
The air resistance is affected two factors. Both are shape and size. If the surface area is bigger,
the air resistance is also bigger.
4: Experiment with air resistance
You can do an experiment if you want to know the air resistance. You can pick one flat paper
and one crumpled paper. Since the crumpled paper has small surface, it falls faster. If the surface
is small, the air resistance is also small.
Air resistance Pic
5: Gravity Or Air Resistance?
Which one is bigger, air resistance or gravity? Air resistance is smaller compared to the gravity.
Since gravity is bigger, it always wins over the air resistance.
6: The speed
When the speed is increased, the drag or air resistance is also increased.
Air resistance Pictures
7: Free Fall
When an object is in a free fall state, the only force applied on the object is only the gravity
force.
8: Terminal Velocity
Terminal velocity is another term that people should understand when they learn about air
resistance. When an object stops accelerating because of air acceleration, you can call it terminal
velocity. The object will fall at a constant speed even though it continues to fall down.
Air resistance
9: Astronauts
The astronauts will never fall their heads on the ceiling when the shuttle falls because the shuttle
and the astronauts are in free fall state.
The Watercraft hovercraft
A balloon and bottle cap/bottle will move in the water because the
air from the balloon pushes the water behind it and uses that to
move. If you are wondering why don’t you just get a balloon fill it
with air and put it in water? Well we don’t do that because if you
just put a balloon in there the air coming out is not controlled and
the balloon is too light and it will just fly out of the water and go
everywhere. So we put a bottle with a hole in the bottom/bottle
cap so it will be heavier and won’t fly off and so that the air will
be a lot more controlled. We also don’t put a C.D at the end
because the C.D is too round and it will make the watercraft go all
over the place with no control
Experimental methods
Mini-hovercraft
First we got a CD , bottle cap , and a balloon . We taped the CD to
the bottle cap and we put the balloon on the bottle cap. Then we
blew up the balloon. We placed it on a table with the bottle cap
closed so that the air wouldn’t escape. Then we opened the bottle
cap and watched what happened. It moves in the any surface
because the balloon pushes the surface behind it and uses that to
move. How long it moves depends on how big you blow up the
balloon and what the surface is example: if the surface is wet it
might be really slippy and go faster or if the surface is smooth
then it might not be affected by the surface and go completely
by the balloon.
Conclusions –
What did you learn?
● We learnt that if you put a C.D. on the bottom of
a bottle cap/bottle and a balloon it moves well on
smooth surfaces. We learnt that if you put a
balloon and bottle cap in the water it moves in the
water.
What key discoveries did you make?
● We found out that putting a C.D. on the bottom of
a bottle cap/bottle and balloon can not make it lift
off the ground but just makes it barely hover.
What did you enjoy most while doing the project?
● We enjoyed experimenting with making a mini
hovercraft and working as a team.
Acknowledgements
acknowledge any help you received during the project for
example, teachers, friends, school and parents.
Ms Brosnan, Ms McAndrew and Ms O’Mahony all helped us
with our projects. We also got help from our parents.
References
Books:
Science Quest 5, 100 Science Experiments
Webpages:
www.miniscientist.ie
http://factfile.org/10-facts-about-air-resistance
fromhttps://sciencebob.com/build-a-tabletophovercraft-2/
Comments page JUDGES ONLY
Contents page
Content
Page number
introduction
1.
main information
2.
hovercraft designs
4.
facts
5.
the watercraft
11.
experimental methods
12.
conclusions
13.
acknowledgements
14.
references
15.
comment page
16.