You've probably often seen planes flying and boats in the water, but have you really thought about what's involved in their operation? There is a lot of interesting science that goes into how they work. Here are a few of the topics covered in the Project Ideas below to help you investigate the science of air- and watercraft:
What A Drag!
What makes some objects more streamlined than others? Find out which ordinary objects around your house are made to move smoothly through the water in this easy science fair project. Which objects will produce the most drag when pulled through the water?
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Make the Wind Work for You!
Alternative energy sources are a big deal these days. One such source is the wind. Find out how a wind turbine can use the power of the wind to generate energy in this science fair engineering project. You'll design various blades to find out which produces the most energy, and put the wind to work for you!
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What Makes a Good Aerodynamic Design? Test Your Ideas with High-Performance Paper Gliders
A great way to get started in exploring aerodynamics is by building high-performance paper gliders. We're not talking folded pieces of copier paper here. These gliders are built using laminated construction methods, so they look and fly much more like the real thing. The materials are inexpensive, and the building techniques are easy to learn. You can easily turn out several planes, which makes it possible to test the effects of design changes on flight performance.
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Rocket Aerodynamics
Have you ever heard the expression, "Well, it's not exactly rocket science…" ? For your science fair project, you can
be a rocket scientist. Here's how.
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Buoyancy of Floating Cylinders
This project presents an interesting puzzle. A disk of wood will float face-up, that is, with its circular cross-section parallel to the surface of the water. A long log of wood, however, floats with the circular cross-section perpendicular to the surface of the water. If you think about it, disks and logs are
both cylinders. Is there some intermediate length of cylinder that floats with the circular cross-section at a tilted angle? Do an experiment to find out!
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Why Winglets?
Have you ever noticed how some jet planes have small, vertical projections as the tips of the wings? They're called
winglets. What are they there for?
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The Wright Stuff: Using Kites to Study Aerodynamics
The Wright brothers used kites extensively to test their design ideas in the years leading up to their first successful airplane flight. With this science project, you'll learn about kite aerodynamics, and then come up with your own hypothesis about building or flying a kite. You can test your hypothesis two ways: with an online kite simulation program from NASA, and outdoors with the real thing! A great feature of this science project is that it has many possible variations, so you can decide exactly in which direction you want to take it.
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Making It Shipshape: Hull Design and Hydrodynamics
Sailboats, tugboats, barges, ocean liners, submarines are all different boats with different shapes. How does the shape of a boat's hull affect how easily it moves through the water? This project shows you how you can investigate this question using a homemade water trough and model boat hulls.
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Investigating Fluid Viscosity
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You can measure the viscosity of a fluid using a glass tube and a marble with slightly smaller diameter than the tube. Seal one end of the tube. Fill the tube with the fluid to be tested. Drop...
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Riding on Air—Build a Real Hovercraft
Looking for an exciting new mode of transportation? In this science fair project, you will build a working hovercraft that will glide over surfaces on a cushion of air. And it's simpler to build than you might think!
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Index of Aerodynamics & Hydrodynamics Project Ideas |
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