Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I am writing on behalf of my 6 year old son (1st grader). He going to make LEGO science projects and he has an idea (to his level) as how to give flexibility to LEGO bricks (1x3). He plans to show a 1x3 wall solid and rigid to turn into circular shape (water well). Is it doable science project? Hope you can give us expert advice here.

Hi,

Here's an idea to explore: A regular polygon is a shape made of a certain number of sides (n sides) that are all the same length, such that the angle between any two sides is the same and the shape is convex. (That sounds complicated, but if you look at pictures of concave and convex polygons your son will pick it up quickly and can probably explain 'convex' in a way that makes sense to him.) The more sides a regular polygon has -- going to from triangle, to square, to pentagon, etc -- the more it looks like a circle. So, one way to think of a circle is as a regular polygon with an infinite number of sides.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convex_polygon
http://www.mathopenref.com/polygonregular.html
http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/54912.html

Amanda

thanks Amanda,

I will sure work with my Son on your suggestions.

Niyant

Hello Amanda,

Will you please give your expert comments for the below choices for Hypothesis? We are debating in the family.

• Rectangular LEGO bricks when joined with small regular round parts can make LEGO circle and increasing LEGO brick sizes will give larger LEGO circle.
OR
• Smooth LEGO circles can be made from rectangular LEGO bricks without use of special parts and by increasing LEGO brick sizes, larger LEGO circle is achieved.
OR
• How rectangular LEGO bricks can be joined to make a smooth circle without using special LEGO parts and what will happen to circle size when size of LEGO bricks changes?

thanks in advance.