On May 8, physics students participated in a boat race across Silver Lake.
“I’ve been doing calculations with my team, duct taping and measuring if we’ve had enough cardboard,” freshman Annika Kuo said.
Students built a boat from scratch, doing all the calculations for dimensions themselves without a blueprint using only a limited amount of cardboard and duct tape.
“We have in-class time to work on the boat itself, but a lot of the preparation was being done in office hours or in independent free periods,” freshman Joseph Qiu said.
Students prepared for over a week, dedicating not only class time but also office hours and free periods. Physics teachers Monisha Patel and Brendan Leezer encouraged students to work as often as needed to create a boat that would successfully make it to the end of the lake. Students applied physics concepts they learned throughout the year.
“We learned about density, fluid pressure and buoyancy. We also learned about Archimedes and the calculations that they needed to know,” Patel said. “This is an engineering design, so I want them to think through calculations and how the calculations will help them design a good boat.”
An integral part of creating a successful boat was using enough duct tape. However, students often underestimated the amount of duct tape they needed to use on the bottom of the boat. Otherwise, the boat would not be waterproof, and it would sink while trying to reach the other side of the lake.
“Something we would’ve done differently was put duct tape on the top of the boat because one of the members cut his arm badly paddling,” freshman Jack Allan said.
While students enjoyed the boat race overall, they said it was difficult to realize the importance of certain aspects of boat building.
“I think this is a fantastic way to end the semester and the year really. We take concepts that were learned in the first chapter back in August and use them to build this boat,” Patel said. “I love this boat race, and designing the boats really pulls on everything we’ve learned through the year.”