Messing About With Boats
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Messing About With Boats
The Physics Stars
Download film (right-click)Award Winners , Explanation , Make & Do , Physics , Primary
Detergent-powered boats!
Director's Notes:
Racing paper boats gets a bit competitive when this team investigates surface tension and the advantages of using washing-up liquid. Based on a Marvin and Milo experiment from the Institute of Physics: Foil Boat.
Winner: Best Film (Primary), 2011
SciCast Notes:
I love this, and only partly because these boats never work this well when I make them. Great performances, well-rehearsed, and “That’s stupendous!” is masterfully over-played.
Good sound, too, and the explanation is very clear. My only complaint is that I’ve never thought the ‘…like a skin on the surface of the water’ image is very helpful — the previous part of the explanation here gives you a much more realistic picture of what’s going on at the water surface to make it behave the way it does.
But hey, most people would disagree with me. It’s a great film.
— Jonathan