Science Toys ≍ Science Tools

This will be a reflective post about the insights we generated whilst playing and experimenting with lightweight materials. I will try to share some thoughts that we will also present in our Workshop about flying objects.

As we were working on building a glider out of styrofoam material we noticed, that what is so special about this material is it’s lightness and rigidity. Depending on what kind of styrofoam you are using you will get up to ten times the lightness that the same amount of paper would have. That makes it the perfect material to construct flying objects with it. Of course, one needs the ability to produce thin sheets of styrofoam, because a whole block wouldn’t fly – or wouldn’t fly that good. Therefore we developed a technique to use a hot wire to cut styropor-sheets that are approximately 1mm thick. We were using styro-blocks as well as semi-manufactured forms to be able to quickly produce airplane-like forms for a workshop.

When looking at the material on a macroscopic level, it is solid and flexible. When putting it under a microscope we can recognize the microscopic structure which makes the characteristics: air-bubbles. The material is nothing more than synthetic with air in it. Some shots that we took visualize this fact.

Little Shining Man is a flying sculpture by Heather and Ivan Morison, which is made out of thousands of different parts forming a big cube, lightweight enough to fly. It demonstrates perfectly the macroscopic effects of creating materials or structures that are able to fly by adding air to it. By that I mean the principle to use as less material as possible and leaving as much space as possible for air to float in and around the material.

From their website:”The design of the structure is based around the tetra kites of Alexander Graham Bell, multiplied out into colliding cubes that take their form from the cubic formations of the mineral Pyrite. A double wing module has been duplicated and arranged into a tight cellular structural arrangement that appears as a heavy, un-flyable mass. Utilising lightweight materials and the symmetry of the module and composition, it is able to fly freely and steadily.”

Neben der Pollensaison zeigt die Natur momentan gerade wieder ihre Fähigkeiten im Bereich der Aviatik. Die Samen des Löwenzahns haben hervorragende Flugeigenschaften und transportieren die Samen je nach Wind kilometerweit.

We are visiting Technorama regular.