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Rotating space stations in fact and science fiction
This resource – rotating space stations in fact and science fiction – may be used with our resource on Artificial gravity in a space station.
Some people prefer to start here, learning the ideas and designs first, and then look at the physics in more detail. Others prefer the reverse order. Both ways are fine.
Big idea: Building a rotating space station with artificial gravity isn’t a far-out sci-fi idea. The idea has its roots in firm, realistic engineering & science. Most of the designs based on this idea are quite realistic (at least until we get to the world-sized megastructures at the end of this unit.)
NASA 1950s concept
From Dan Beaumont Space Museum
In a 1952 series of articles written in Collier’s, Dr. Wernher von Braun, then Technical Director of the Army Ordnance Guided Missiles Development Group at Redstone Arsenal, wrote of a large wheel-like space station in a 1,075-mile orbit.
This station, made of flexible nylon, would be carried into space by a fully reusable three-stage launch vehicle. Once in space, the station’s collapsible nylon body would be inflated much like an automobile tire.
The 250-foot-wide wheel would rotate to provide artificial gravity, an important consideration at the time because little was known about the effects of prolonged zero-gravity on humans.
Von Braun’s wheel was slated for a number of important missions: a way station for space exploration, a meteorological observatory and a navigation aid. This concept was illustrated by artist Chesley Bonestell.
Graphic – NASA/MSFC Negative Number: 9132079. Reference Number MSFC-75-SA-4105-2C
2001 A Space Odyssey
Perhaps the most classic design of a rotating space ship comes from 2001: A Space Odyssey. This was a 1968 epic science fiction film by Stanley Kubrick, and the concurrently written novel by Arthur C. Clarke. The story was inspired by Clarke’s 1951 short story “The Sentinel.”
The film is noted for its scientifically accurate depiction of space flight. The space station was based on a 1950s conceptual design by NASA scientist Wernher Von Braun.
Classic rotating spacestation designs
The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space is a 1976 book by Gerard K. O’Neill, a road map for what the United States might do in outer space after the Apollo program, the drive to place a man on the Moon and beyond.
It envisions large manned habitats in the Earth-Moon system, especially near stable Lagrangian points. Three designs are proposed:
Island one (a modified Bernal sphere)
Island two (a Stanford torus)
Island 3, two O’Neill cylinders. See below.
These would be constructed using raw materials from the lunar surface launched into space using a mass driver and from near-Earth asteroids. The habitats spin for simulated gravity. They would be illuminated and powered by the Sun.
O’Neill cylinder
Consists of two counter-rotating cylinders. The cylinders would rotate in opposite directions in order to cancel out any gyroscopic effects that would otherwise make it difficult to keep them aimed toward the Sun.
Each could be 5 miles (8.0 km) in diameter and 20 miles (32 km) long, connected at each end by a rod via a bearing system. They would rotate so as to provide artificial gravity via centrifugal force on their inner surfaces.
The space station in the TV series Babylon 5 is modeled after this kind of design.
(This section adapted from Wikipedia.)
A pair of O’Neill cylinders. NASA ID number AC75-1085
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Rick Guidice, NASA Ames Research Center; color-corrector unknown
Inhabitants on the inside of the outer edge experience 1 g. When at halfway between the axis and the outer edge they would experience only 0.5 g. At the axis itself they would experience 0 g.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD3GMwg4qZo
Visions Of The High Frontier Space Colonies of 1970
Rama
In his 1973 science fiction novel Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke provides a vivid description of a rotating cylindrical spaceship, built by unknown minds for an unknown purpose.
http://www.nss.org/settlement/space/rama.htm
Rama video – artist’s homepage and resources
Babylon 5
Babylon 5 was an American hard sci-fi, space-opera, TV series created by J. Michael Straczynski, that aired in the 1990’s. It was conceived of as a novel for television, each episode would be a single chapter. A coherent story unfolds over five 22-episode seasons. The station is modeled after the O’Neil design (above.)
It is an O’Neill cylinder 5 miles (8.0 km) long and 0.5–1.0 mile (0.80–1.61 km) in diameter.
Ringworld
Ringworld is a 1970 science fiction novel by Larry Niven, a classic of science fiction literature. It tells the story of Louis Wu and his companions on a mission to the Ringworld, a rotating wheel space station, an alien construct in space 186 million miles in diameter – approximately the diameter of Earth’s orbit. It encircles a sun-like star.
It rotates to provide artificial gravity and has a habitable, flat inner surface – equivalent in area to approximately three million Earths. It has a breathable atmosphere and a temperature optimal for humans.
Night is provided by an inner ring of shadow squares. These are far from the surface of the ringworld, orbiting closer to the star. These squares are connected to each other by thin, ultra-strong wire.
Halo
Halo is a science fiction media franchise centered on a series of video games. The focus of the franchise builds off the experiences of Master Chief. The term “Halo” refers to the Halo Array: a group of immense, habitable, ring-shaped superweapons.
They are similar to the Orbitals in Iain M. Banks’ Culture novels, and to a lesser degree to author Larry Niven’s Ringworld concept.
ELA/Literary connections
Short Story – “Spirals” by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. First appeared in Jim Baen’s Destinies, April-June 1979. Story summary – Cornelius Riggs, Metallurgist, answers an ad claiming “high pay, long hours, high risk. Guaranteed wealthy in ten years if you live through it.”
The position turns out to be an engineering post aboard humanity’s orbiting habitat. The founders of “the Shack” dream of a livable biosphere beyond Earth’s gravity, a permanent settlement in space. However, Earth’s the economic conditions are getting worse, and the supply ships become more and more infrequent.
See the short story Spirals by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.
Computer & math connections
The O’Neill Cylinder Simulator, by David Kann, Australia.
“In our discussion we came across the thought of what it might look like to throw a ball in the air in a zero-gravity rotating space station. I was stumped so I brought the question to my colleagues. They were stumped. Eventually I was able to make a pair of parametric equations for position in time to model the motion of the ball but it didn’t tell me much unless I could visualize the graph of the equations. The next logical step was to simulate the equations in software. Enter the O’Neill Cylinder Simulator:”
“When I saw the parametric equation animated (like above) it blew my mind a little. Here we see someone throwing a ball up and to the left, it circles above their head, and returns to them from the right. Throwing a ball in an O’Neill Cylinder apparently is nothing like on Earth. You can do some really sweet patterns:”
Also see Rotating space stations with counter rotating segments
Thanks for reading. While you’re here see our other articles on astronomy, biology, chemistry, Earth science, mathematics, physics, the scientific method, and making science connections through books, TV and movies.
Learning Standards
SAT Subject Test in Physics
Circular motion, such as uniform circular motion and centripetal force
2016 Massachusetts Science and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Framework
HS-PS2-1. Analyze data to support the claim that Newton’s second law of motion is a
mathematical model describing change in motion (the acceleration) of objects when
acted on by a net force.
HS-PS2-10(MA). Use free-body force diagrams, algebraic expressions, and Newton’s laws of motion to predict changes to velocity and acceleration for an object moving in one dimension in various situations
Massachusetts Science and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Framework (2006)
1. Motion and Forces. Central Concept: Newton’s laws of motion and gravitation describe and predict the motion of most objects.
1.8 Describe conceptually the forces involved in circular motion.
Florence DiTullio Joyce first women welder in WWII shipyards
Women in engineering and related trades
This is Florence “Woo Woo” DiTullio Joyce. She was the first woman hired by the Fore River Shipyard in 1942. She was hired when the shipyard lost most of their male employees to enlistment during WW2.
This was before women were generally hired for defense industries. She was accepted because she had a local reputation as an excellent oxy-acetalene welder. At the time, some congressmen had sworn women would never be hired for such jobs.
Her moniker (“Woo-woo”) was what the shipbuilders shouted when she arrived on site the first day. She kept the nick name, and owned it, painting it across the back of her welding jacket.
Her success was part of what led to the later hiring of tens of thousands of women.
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From Quincy 400, City of Quincy, MA
Meet Florence DiTullio Joyce, the first woman welder to be employed by the Fore River Shipyard in 1942. A Quincy High graduate who lived with her mother and sister on Washington Street, she learned of the opportunity through her uncle, Daniel Libertini, who was working for the shipyard at that time. In a 2009 interview with the Patriot Ledger Joyce said, “I was young and I just thought it would be something fascinating, something different.”
At that point in time, the United States was embroiled in World War II, and the Fore River Shipyard was producing more vessels than any other shipyard in the nation. Many of the shipyard’s skilled laborers had been young men who had been called to serve their country, but the ever-expanding war effort required employers to seek out energetic and enterprising young women to fill these roles in their stead.
Joyce’s employment ushered in the introduction of four other women to the force, and the group gained notoriety as “the first wave of ‘Winnie the Welders’” to engage in this trade. Ultimately, around 2,000 women were employed by the shipyard during the war years.
Joyce’s workday began at 7 a.m. and concluded at 3:30 p.m., and she spent a majority of her time in the shipyard’s steel mill. She earned, on average, $40 per week, “fashioning steel girders from sheet metal.” When she was interviewed at age 22, she reported that the work was “dangerous and tough– tougher than hell. But I love it!”
When she wasn’t working, Joyce and her sister would attend events hosted by the USO, or go dancing at the American Legion. Nights out on the town at that time cost about 20 cents. Though the on-going war was an ever-present part of their lives, she later remarked that, “It was serious because it was the war, but when you were young, it was fun because there were a lot of new people and different things to do.”
References
Dave Willhoite post on Florence DiTullio
Meet Florence DiTullio Joyce, Quincy 400
Mann, Jennifer. (2009, May 6). ‘Winnie the Welder’: Former female shipbuilder recalls war days.
Florence “Woo-Woo” DiTullio: Winnie the Welder. (2018)
Building a RC car: Elective
In this elective our students will build a remote control car from a lego-like construction set, addressing the learning standards listed below.
Goals: Fun, and developing fine motor skills; Reading and precisely following. step-by-step instructions. Discerning exact sequence of cause-and-effect for simple machines.
Here one of our students is engaged in the build.
Learning Standards
Massachusetts Science and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Framework
Using simple machines in engineering
HS-ETS4-5(MA). Explain how a machine converts energy, through mechanical means, to do work. Collect and analyze data to determine the efficiency of simple and complex machines.
7.MS-ETS3-4(MA). Show how the components of a structural system work together to serve a structural function. Provide examples of physical structures and relate their design to their intended use.
Appendix VIII Value of Crosscutting Concepts and Nature of Science in Curricula
Cause and Effect: Mechanism and Explanation. Events have causes, sometimes simple, sometimes multifaceted. A major activity of science and engineering is investigating and explaining causal relationships and the mechanisms by which they are mediated. Such mechanisms can then be tested across given contexts and used to predict and explain events in new contexts or design solutions.
College Board Standards for College Success: Science
Standard PS.1 Interactions, Forces and Motion
Changes in the natural and designed world are caused by interactions. Interactions of an object with other objects can be described by forces that can cause a change in motion of one or both interacting objects. Students understand that the term “interaction” is used to describe causality in science: Two objects interact when they act on or influence each other to cause some effect.
Massachusetts Digital Literacy and Computer Science (DLCS) Curriculum Framework
6-8.CS.a.4 Identify and describe the use of sensors, actuators, and control systems in an embodied system (e.g., a robot, an e-textile, installation art, smart room).
Pascal’s Principle
Pressure applied to an enclosed, incompressible, static fluid is transmitted undiminished to all parts of the fluid.
Hydraulic systems operate according to Pascal’s law.
- Define pressure.
- State Pascal’s principle.
- Understand applications of Pascal’s principle.
- Derive relationships between forces in a hydraulic system.
image from littlewhitecoats.blogspot.com
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Learning Standards
tba
Tidal power
Content objective:
What are we learning? Why are we learning this?
content, procedures, skills
Vocabulary objective
Tier II: High frequency words used across content areas. Key to understanding directions, understanding relationships, and for making inferences.
Tier III: Low frequency, domain specific terms
Building on what we already know
What vocabulary & concepts were learned in earlier grades?
Make connections to prior lessons.
Ocean tides are caused by tidal forces.
What are “tides”?
Types of tidal power
Tidal barrages may be the most efficient way to capture energy from the tides.
Here, a dam utilizes the potential energy generated by the change in height between high and low tides.
In this example, the motion of the water spins a propeller.
image from technologystudent.com/images5/tidal1.gif
The spinning propeller spins an axle, which transmits the motion up to the generator.
Inside the generator, this motion is used to rotate wires inside a magnet (or vice-versa)
The wire feels the magnetic field changing;
this produces an electrical current inside the wires.
Thus we have converted the energy of moving water into electrical energy.
Tidal fences
Turbines that operate like giant turnstiles.
The spinning turnstiles spins an axle, which transmits the motion up to the generator.
Inside the generator, this motion is used to rotate wires inside a magnet (or vice-versa) as shown above.
Tidal turbines
Similar to wind turbines but these are underwater.
The mechanical energy of tidal currents is used to turn turbines.
These are connected to a generator that produces electricity
Other possible designs
Many other designs are possible, for instance:
Fluid Pumping Apparatuses Powered By Waves Or Flowing Currents
Great animations
Many types of tidal energy convertors (European Marine Energy Centre)
Advantages of tidal power
Environmentally friendly
Relatively small amount of space
Ocean currents generate relatively more energy than air currents. Why? Because ocean water is 832 times more dense than air. It therefore applies greater force on the turbines.
Disadvantages of tidal power
High construction costs
The amount of energy produced is not constant per hour, or even per week.
It requires a suitable site, where tidal streams are consistently strong.
The equipment must be capable of withstanding strong tides and storms.
It can be expensive to maintain and repair.
Related topics
Why Is There a Tidal Bulge Opposite the Moon?
Coal power
Content objective:
What are we learning? Why are we learning this? (content, procedures, skills)
Vocabulary objective
Tier II: High frequency words used across content areas. Key to understanding directions, understanding relationships, and for making inferences.
Tier III: Low frequency, domain specific terms
Building on what we already know
Make connections to prior lessons.
What is coal?
A combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock
Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements; chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
From High School Coal Study Guide, U.S. Dept. of Energy, http://www.energy.gov,
How is coal used?
Coal is primarily used as a fuel. While coal has been known and used for thousands of years, its usage was limited prior to the Industrial Revolution.
With the invention of the steam engine coal consumption increased. As of 2016, coal remains an important fuel as it supplied about a quarter of the world’s primary energy, and two-fifths of electricity.
Some iron and steel making and other industrial processes burn coal.
How was coal formed?
Over many years, in some locations, dead plant matter decays into peat.
Peat may be converted into coal by the heat and pressure of deep burial – this takes place over millions of years.
Vast deposits of coal originate in former wetlands—called coal forests—that covered much of the Earth’s tropical land areas during the late Carboniferous/Pennsylvanian (from 360 to 300 million years ag0) and Permian times (from 300 to 250 million years ago.)
However, many significant coal deposits are younger than this and originate from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras.
This beautiful infographic shows us how coal is formed over time.
Here we see the process over time.
Types of coal
Lignite – the lowest rank of coal, most harmful to health when burned.
sub-bituminous coal – used primarily as fuel for steam-electric power generation. Slightly less polluting.
bituminous coal – a dense sedimentary rock, usually black. Used as fuel in steam-electric power generation. Used to to make coke. Historically used to raise steam in steam locomotives and ships.
anthracite coal – The highest rank of coal. Hard, glossy black, used primarily for residential and commercial space heating.
From High School Coal Study Guide, U.S. Dept. of Energy, http://www.energy.gov,
So what is coal really made of?
What if we looked deep inside coal, and could see the molecular structure? It is a complex array of different organic molecules.
Recall that coal was made from piles of ancient plants. Plants are made of cellulose, and that is just made from a bunch of linked sugar molecules.
Check this out – this cellulose molecule is really just a bunch of sugars bonded together.
Now, under millions of years of heat and pressure, cellulose molecules break down and reconnect into other shapes.
As such, coal has way more different shaped molecules than oil.
Think of coal as a bunch of five-sided and six-sided rings of carbon.
They are often hooked together with an O (oxygen) atom.
- General Chemistry: Principles, Patterns, and Applications, 5.5 Energy Sources and the Environment
Energy Sources and the Environment
All sorts of shapes are possible; there are millions of them.
Here is another example.
From Wikimedia, Struktura chemiczna węgla kamiennego
How is the energy in coal turned into electrical power?
Burn coal to release heat, and use that heat to create electrical power.
Burning oil is a chemical reaction called combustion.
In physics, power has a very specific meaning.
It is the rate that energy is transformed from one form into another form.
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Coal is pulverized (D)
and burnt in a furnace (C).
The heat energy released is used to heat water into super hot steam which is then used to turn turbines (B).
The turbines drive the generators (A) which produce electricity.
The steam is then condensed and recycled.
The chimney labeled “F”, known as a condensing tower, releases water vapour and is part of the recycling of steam.
The chimney labeled “G” is attached to the furnace and releases carbon dioxide and ash.
Text and GIF above from http://www.dynamicscience. com.au
Here is another animation (source unknown, found at gifer. com) of how coal is used to create electrical energy.
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Turning coal into natural gas
Burning coal creates a lot of air pollution.
Coal gasification turns it into a kind of natural gas that burns more cleanly.
Read more: Scienceclarified.com Real life chemistry
Smog – a bad side effect of burning coal
Huge amounts of SO2 get into the atmosphere from power plants burning sulfur-containing coal or oil.
Smog is air pollution that reduces visibility. The term was first used in the early 1900s to describe a mix of smoke and fog.
The smoke usually came from burning coal. Smog was common in industrial areas, and remains a familiar sight in cities today.
Today, most of the smog we see is photochemical smog. Photochemical smog is produced when sunlight reacts with nitrogen oxides and at least one volatile organic compound (VOC) in the atmosphere.
Nitrogen oxides come from car exhaust, coal power plants, and factory emissions.
The Great Smog of London, or Great Smog of 1952
Image found at makeagif
How we partially ended smog in the modern world with EPA regulations.
Human-caused atmospheric changes
Coal Ash Is More Radioactive Than Nuclear Waste
How elections are impacted by a 100 million year old coastline
Environmental social justice
Learning Standards
Massachusetts History and Social Science Curriculum Framework
Grade 6: HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY Interpret geographic information from a graph or chart and construct a graph or chart that conveys geographic information (e.g., about rainfall, temperature, or population size data)
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CHANGE IN EUROPE, 1800–1914 WHII.6 Summarize the social and economic impact of the Industrial Revolution… population and urban growth
Benchmarks, American Association for the Advancement of Science
In the 1700s, most manufacturing was still done in homes or small shops, using small, handmade machines that were powered by muscle, wind, or moving water. 10J/E1** (BSL)
In the 1800s, new machinery and steam engines to drive them made it possible to manufacture goods in factories, using fuels as a source of energy. In the factory system, workers, materials, and energy could be brought together efficiently. 10J/M1*
The invention of the steam engine was at the center of the Industrial Revolution. It converted the chemical energy stored in wood and coal into motion energy. The steam engine was widely used to solve the urgent problem of pumping water out of coal mines. As improved by James Watt, Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer, it was soon used to move coal; drive manufacturing machinery; and power locomotives, ships, and even the first automobiles. 10J/M2*
The Industrial Revolution developed in Great Britain because that country made practical use of science, had access by sea to world resources and markets, and had people who were willing to work in factories. 10J/H1*
The Industrial Revolution increased the productivity of each worker, but it also increased child labor and unhealthy working conditions, and it gradually destroyed the craft tradition. The economic imbalances of the Industrial Revolution led to a growing conflict between factory owners and workers and contributed to the main political ideologies of the 20th century. 10J/H2
Today, changes in technology continue to affect patterns of work and bring with them economic and social consequences. 10J/H3*
Protecting New Orleans from rising water levels
New Orleans, Louisiana
This is a placeholder blogpost. The article is to be written
Map: Google Maps. Photos by Mary Grace McKernan; infographic: by Marc Fusco.
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Image by Midnightcomm for Wikipedia, public domain.
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Apps & Interactive graphics
Louisiana’s Sea Level Is Rising: SeaLevelRise.org
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Articles
Fortified But Still In Peril, New Orleans Braces for Its Future: In the years after Hurricane Katrina, over 350 miles of levees, flood walls, gates and pumps came to encircle greater New Orleans. Experts say that is not enough.
By John Schwartz and Mark Schleifstein, 2/24/2018
Fortified But Still In Peril, New Orleans Braces for Its Future
After a $14-Billion Upgrade, New Orleans’ Levees Are Sinking. Sea level rise and ground subsidence will render the flood barriers inadequate in just four years. By Thomas Frank, E&E News, Scientific American, 4/11,/2019
After a $14-Billion Upgrade, New Orleans’ Levees Are Sinking. Scientific American
Rising Sea Levels May Limit New Orleans Adaptation Efforts. New Orleans sees that even modern engineering cannot eliminate flooding risk. By Emily Holden, ClimateWire on September 10, 2015. Scientific American.
Rising Sea Levels May Limit New Orleans Adaptation Efforts. Scientific American
Fortified but still in peril, New Orleans braces for its future: Our Drowning Coast. By Mark Schleifstein | Posted February 24, 2018.
Fortified but still in peril, New Orleans braces for its future
Rising sea to displace 500,000 New Orleans area residents, study says; see where they might go. By Tristan Baurick, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. 4/20/2017.
A study published this week (April 2017) predicts that sea level rise will push hundreds of thousands of people out of U.S. coastal cities such as New Orleans. It says the population will boom in nearby inland cities such as Austin. The University of Georgia study is considered the first detailed look at how inland cities might be affected by sea level rise. It estimates more than than 500,000 people will flee the seven-parish New Orleans area by 2100 due to sea level rise and the problems that come with it, including frequent flooding and greater exposure to storm surges. That’s more than one third of metro New Orleans’s current population…. Across the United States, the study estimates, 13 million people will be displaced by sea level rise under a scenario in which some efforts are taken to mitigate the impacts of sea level rise. The biggest draw, it predicts, will be Austin, gaining 600,00 to 800,000 people on top of the metro area’s current estimated population of 2.1 million. Other inland cities likely to grow substantially include Orlando, Fla., Atlanta and Phoenix.
Rising sea to displace 500,000 New Orleans area residents, study says. NOLA.com
Migration induced by sea-level rise could reshape the US population landscape
Mathew E. Hauer. Nature Climate Change volume 7, pages 321–325 (2017)
Many sea-level rise (SLR) assessments focus on populations presently inhabiting vulnerable coastal communities, but to date no studies have attempted to model the destinations of these potentially displaced persons. With millions of potential future migrants in heavily populated coastal communities, SLR scholarship focusing solely on coastal communities characterizes SLR as primarily a coastal issue, obscuring the potential impacts in landlocked communities created by SLR-induced displacement. Here I address this issue by merging projected populations at risk of SLR with migration systems simulations to project future destinations of SLR migrants in the United States. I find that unmitigated SLR is expected to reshape the US population distribution, potentially stressing landlocked areas unprepared to accommodate this wave of coastal migrants—even after accounting for potential adaptation. These results provide the first glimpse of how climate change will reshape future population distributions and establish a new foundation for modelling potential migration destinations from climate stressors in an era of global environmental change.
Catapult and Trebuchet build project
A catapult is any one of a number of non-handheld mechanical devices used to throw a projectile a great distance without the aid of an explosive substance—particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines.
The name is the Latinized form of the Ancient Greek καταπέλτης – katapeltes, from κατά – kata (downwards, into, against) and πάλλω – pallo (to poise or sway a missile before it is thrown.) [from Wikipedia]
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Siege engine
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Onager (siege weapon)
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Trebuchet
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Ballista
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Mangonel
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Slingshot
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Aircraft catapult
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Mass driver
Ideas on how to build them at home
KnightForHire: How to build simple catapults
Quotes
Today’s Latin lesson:
“Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscripti catapultas habebunt.”
( “When catapults are outlawed, only outlaws will have catapults.” )
“Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam”
( “I have a catapult. Give me all your money, or I will fling an enormous rock at your head.” )
If you lived in the Dark Ages, and you were a catapult operator, I bet the most common question people would ask is, ‘Can’t you make it shoot farther?’ No. I’m sorry. That’s as far as it shoots.”
– Jack Handy, Deep Thoughts, Saturday Night Live
Build an onager, ballista or trebuchet.
Grading rubric. The project is worth 100 points.
Timeliness: Late projects lose 5 points per day.
A. Catapults use torsion (energy stored in a twisted rope or other material.) Do not merely use a stretched elastic (e.g. rubber band.)
If you build a trebuchet then you will need to use a pivoting beam and a counterweight.
B. It will have some kind of trigger or switch. (Without such a trigger, you would merely have a large slingshot.)
C. The payload range will be nearly constant (each payload lands within 15% of the other payloads.)
D. It will have adjustable firing: One setting will yield a shorter range (at least 4 feet.), while another setting yields a longer range (at least 8 feet.)
E. The weight limit is 10 pounds.
F. The longest allowable dimensions of height, length and width are 50 centimeters for each.
Scoring
100 points Machine built according to the above characteristics
– 20 points Minimum range is not met.
– 20 points Too large or too heavy.
– 10 points Firing range is not adjustable.
– 10 points Uses a stretched elastic material (e.g. rubber band) as the only source of power. (Not applicable for trebuchets, of course.)
– 10 points No trigger.
– 5 points Payload range is not constant
Catapult animations
Redstone projects.com: Catapult animations
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Mad science
Why has no one else done this? Nothing makes the hard work of learning science more fun than using it for evil! We can rewrite actual national high school learning standards – as if from the James Bond villain organization SPECTRE (Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion) 😂
We can then teach a unit of physics (or any science) with real science labs & quizzes, but as if we’re a mad scientist. Keep it real and make it fun: bring in real history and engineering. Show actual, proposed mad science projects. Stuff that’s absolutely real that most people never heard of.
Have a day of class with mini bios of real & fictional mad scientists – because all kids deserve good role models 😜
Challenge our students to come up with a science-based demo, presentation, or plan based on you know, the usual: World domination, that sort of thing.
It’s all about the presentation, of course 😉
Actual proposed mad science projects
Nikola Tesla
Tesla and wireless power transmission
Project Habbakuk
Project Habbakuk: Britain’s secret attempt to build an ice warship. CNN.
Project Habbakuk: Britain’s Secret Ice “Bergship” Aircraft Carrier
Project Habakkuk (Wikipedia)
Project Orion
“The 1960s Project Orion examined the feasibility of building a nuclear-pulse rocket powered by nuclear fission. It was carried out by physicist Theodore Taylor and others over a seven-year period, beginning in 1958, with United States Air Force support. … it suggested releasing atomic bombs behind a spacecraft, followed by disks made of solid propellant. The bombs would explode, vaporizing the material of the disks and converting it into hot plasma. As this plasma rushed out in all directions, some of it would catch up with the spacecraft, impinge upon a pusher plate, and so drive the vehicle forward.”
Project Orion
Realistic Designs: Atomic Rockets
Project Orion. Medium.com
Extreme Engineering
Extreme Engineering: Tokyo’s Sky City, Transatlantic Tunnel, and the Space Elevator
Not so-actual proposed mad science projects
Evil environmental engineering
Elizabeth @leafcrunch offers this mad plan
“My plan would involve hollowing out West Virginia and using the slag to fill in Lake Ontario, completing a diagonal chain of now saltwater lakes across Turtle island and linking the Arctic & Atlantic seas. This would benefit no one & cause untold damage. I will take no questions.”
https://twitter.com/leafcrunch/status/1232097934503796736/photo/1
Mad Mathematicians
I’m still looking for more examples, but this is a good start:
The Mad Genius Mystery, Alexander Grothendieck, Kaja Perina, Psychology Today, 7/4/2017
Mad Sociology
Maybe? Nah.
Selected mad scientists (real and fictional)
Dr. Walter Bishop, Fringe
Ernst Stavro Blofeld (James Bond series)
Dr Emmett Brown (Back to the Future)
Dr Bruce Banner (Marvel comics and films)
Vladimir Petrovich Demikhov (1916 – 1998)
Real life mad Soviet scientist, organ transplantation pioneer, performed frightening head transplants on dogs and monkeys.
Sir Hugo Drax (James Bond: Moonraker)
Doctor Evil (from Austin Powers)
Amy Farrah Fowler, The Big Bang Theory
John Hays Hammond Jr. (1888-1965)
“The Father of Radio Control”. Had the mad idea that he could guide or control submarines, torpedoes, and boats – remotely. This was considered quackery and impossible – until he actually developed such technology. His developments in electronic remote control are the foundation for today’s modern radio remote control devices, including modern missile guidance systems, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and the unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAVs). Over 400 patents. And of course he built a giant castle with a hidden laboratory, secret passageways, and hidden doors, on the coast of Gloucester MA, because every mad scientist needs a secret castle lab.
Way back in 1922 he created a light-sensing automated driving machine (“the electric dog,”) a predecessor to today’s automated machines.
Yes, I would love to live here.
Lex Luthor (from Superman, DC comics)
Black Manta, David Kane (DC comics)
Victor Frankenstein
Felonius Gru (Despicable Me)
Professor James Moriarty (Sherlock Holmes)
Jim Moriarty (Sherlock)
Captain Nemo – Jules Verne
A character created by the French novelist Jules Verne (1828–1905). Nemo appears in two of Verne’s science-fiction books, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870) and The Mysterious Island (1875) and in many books, comic books, and movies based on this character.
Nemo is a mysterious figure. Though of unknown nationality in the first book, he is described as the son of an Indian raja in the second book. A scientific visionary, he roams the depths of the seas in his submarine, the Nautilus, which was assembled from parts manufactured in several different countries, then shipped to a cover address. The captain is consumed by a hunger for vengeance and hatred of imperialism; Verne included references to anti-imperialist uprisings, including the Kościuszko Uprising and Indian Rebellion of 1857, in the various backstories of Nemo.
Dr. Julius No, James Bond villain
Q (James Bond) – Qhead of Q Branch (later Q Division), the fictional research and development division of the British Secret Service charged with oversight of top-secret field technologies.
Louise G. Robinovitch 1869-1940s, another real mad scientist. These are actual news headlines:
USE ELECTRICITY TO REINSTILL LIFE; Experiments by Which an Animal Which Died Under Anesthetics Was Resuscitated.
HUMAN PATIENTS NEXT Dr. Louise G. Rabinovitch Pursuing Experiments in Inducing Electric Sleep as Substitute for Anesthetics.
Article, The New York Times, 9/27/1908
This next image is about her work, from Technical World Magazine published in 1910.
From Alexander Pope to “Splice”: a Short History of the Female Mad Scientist
Nenad Sestan, Yale Neuroscientist – reviving decapitated heads.
Photo: Sestan and Zvonimir Vrselja (left) and Stefano Daniele (right), the two co-first authors of the paper highlighted by Nature, Yale News
Scientists Revived Cells in Dead Pig Brains, Jason Daley, Smithsonian magazine, 4/18/2019
Scientists Partially Restore Function in Dead Pigs’ Brains Katherine J. Wu, PBS Nova Next, 4/17/2019
Scientists Restore Some Function In The Brains Of Dead Pigs, Nell Greenfieldboyce, NPR All Things Considered, 4/17/2019
Restoration of brain circulation and cellular functions hours post-mortem, Nenad Sestan et al., Nature Vol. 568, 4/18/2019
Dr. Strangelove (Merkwürdigliebe)
https://deutschesoldaten.fandom.com/wiki/Merkw%C3%BCrdigliebe
Nikola Tesla
Wernher von Braun
Herbest West, Reanimator, H. P. Lovecraft
Board games
SPECTRE: The Board Game from Modiphius Entertainment: Compete to become Number 1 of the Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion (SPECTRE) Are you simply in the game to acquire gold bullion, or are your aspirations more philosophical, safe in the knowledge that the world would be better off with you running it?
Articles
From Alexander Pope to “Splice”: a Short History of the Female Mad Scientist
Jess Nevins, io9 Gizmodo, 4/21/2011
Learning Standards
Next Generation Science Standards
HS-ETS1-1. Analyze a major EVIL global challenge to specify qualitative and quantitative criteria and constraints for solutions that account for societal needs and wants.
HS-ETS1-2. Design an EVIL solution to a complex real-world problem by breaking it down into smaller, more manageable problems that can be solved through engineering.
HS-ETS1-3. Evaluate an EVIL solution to a complex real-world problem based on prioritized criteria and trade-offs that account for a range of constraints, including cost, safety, reliability, and aesthetics as well as possible social, cultural, and environmental impacts.
HS-ETS1-4. Use a computer simulation to model the impact of proposed EVIL solutions to a complex real-world problem with numerous criteria and constraints on interactions within and between systems relevant to the problem.
Next Generation Science Standards: Science & Engineering Practices
● Ask questions that arise from careful observation of EVIL phenomena, or unexpected results, to clarify and/or seek additional information.
● Ask questions that arise from examining EVIL models or a theory, to clarify and/or seek additional information and relationships.
● Ask questions to clarify and refine an EVIL model, an explanation, or an engineering problem.
● Evaluate an EVIL question to determine if it is testable and relevant.
● Ask and/or evaluate EVIL questions that challenge the premise(s) of an argument, the interpretation of a data set, or the suitability of the design
2016 Massachusetts Science and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Framework
HS-ETS1-1. Analyze a major EVIL global challenge to specify a design problem that can be improved. Determine necessary qualitative and quantitative criteria and constraints for solutions, including any requirements set by society.
HS-ETS1-2. Break a complex real-world EVIL problem into smaller, more manageable problems that each can be solved using scientific and engineering principles.
HS-ETS1-3. Evaluate a solution to a complex real-world EVIL problem based on prioritized criteria and trade-offs that account for a range of constraints, including cost, safety, reliability, aesthetics, and maintenance, as well as social, cultural, and environmental impacts.
NSTA Science and Engineering Practices
Behaviors that scientists engage in as they investigate and build models and theories about the natural world and the key set of engineering practices that engineers use as they design and build models and systems.
Although engineering design is similar to scientific inquiry, there are significant differences. For example, scientific inquiry involves the formulation of a question that can be answered through investigation, while EVIL engineering design involves the formulation of a problem that can be solved through design for the purposes of counter-intelligence, terrorism, revenge and extortion. Obviously.
Francis Cabot Lowell and the industrial revolution
Before the 1760s, textile production was a cottage industry using mainly flax and wool. A typical weaving family would own one hand loom, which would be operated by the man with help of a boy; the wife, girls and other women could make sufficient yarn for that loom.
The knowledge of textile production had existed for centuries. India had a textile industry that used cotton, from which it manufactured cotton textiles. When raw cotton was exported to Europe it could be used to make fustian.
Two systems had developed for spinning: the simple wheel, which used an intermittent process and the more refined, Saxony wheel which drove a differential spindle and flyer with a heck that guided the thread onto the bobbin, as a continuous process. This was satisfactory for use on hand looms, but neither of these wheels could produce enough thread for the looms after the invention by John Kay in 1734 of the flying shuttle, which made the loom twice as productive.
Cloth production moved away from the cottage into manufactories. The first moves towards manufactories called mills were made in the spinning sector. The move in the weaving sector was later. By the 1820s, all cotton, wool and worsted was spun in mills; but this yarn went to outworking weavers who continued to work in their own homes. A mill that specialised in weaving fabric was called a weaving shed.
This section has been adapted from, Textile manufacture during the British Industrial Revolution, Wikipedia
Francis Cabot Lowell
Samuel Slater had established factories in the 1790s after building textile machinery. Francis Cabot Lowell took it a step further. In 1810, Francis Cabot Lowell visited the textile mills in England. He took note of the machinery in England that was not available in the United States, and he sketched and memorized details.
One machine in particular, the power loom, could weave thread into cloth. He took his ideas to the United States and formed the Boston Manufacturing Company in 1812. With the money he made from this company, he built a water-powered mill. Francis Cabot Lowell is credited for building the first factory where raw cotton could be made into cloth under one roof.
This process, also known as the “Waltham-Lowell System” reduced the cost of cotton. By putting out cheaper cotton, Lowell’s company quickly became successful. After Lowell brought the power loom to the United States, the new textile industry boomed. The majority of businesses in the United States by 1832 were in the textile industry.
Lowell also found a specific workforce for his textile mills. He employed single girls, daughters of New England farm families, also known as The Lowell Girls. Many women were eager to work to show their independence. Lowell found this convenient because he could pay women less wages than he would have to pay men. Women also worked more efficiently than men did and were more skilled when it came to cotton production. This way, he got his work done efficiently, with the best results, and it cost him less. The success of the Lowell mills symbolizes the success and technological advancement of the Industrial Revolution.
– This has been excerpted from The industrial revolution – The textile industry
Note that the analysis above, while correct, is incomplete: This system is an example of how powerful factory owners, combined with inequitable communal social and legal norms, allow one group (in this case, rich land and factory owners) to profit at the expense of people engaged in the actual labor which produces items of value (in this case, native born and immigrant women.)
Ethical issues
This imbalance of power kept people who worked 40 to 60 hours a week poor, by depriving them of fair shares of their profits from their own labor. It also caused much injury and sometimes death from unsafe factory conditions. Factory conditions in America and Europe never improved until the development of labor unions. If you or people you know are able to work 40 hours or less a week, without living in poverty, in a safe environment, without fear of death, that’s due to labor unions.
Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.
– Abraham Lincoln, First Annual Message, 12/3/1861
“If capitalism is fair then unionism must be. If men have a right to capitalize their ideas and the resources of their country, then that implies the right of men to capitalize their labor.”
— Frank Lloyd Wright
Learning Standards
Massachusetts Science and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Framework
HS-ETS4-5(MA). Explain how a machine converts energy, through mechanical means, to do work. Collect and analyze data to determine the efficiency of simple and complex machines.
Massachusetts History and Social Science Curriculum Framework
Grade 6: HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY Interpret geographic information from a graph or chart and construct a graph or chart that conveys geographic information (e.g., about rainfall, temperature, or population size data)
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CHANGE IN EUROPE, 1800–1914 WHII.6 Summarize the social and economic impact of the Industrial Revolution… population and urban growth
Benchmarks, American Association for the Advancement of Science
In the 1700s, most manufacturing was still done in homes or small shops, using small, handmade machines that were powered by muscle, wind, or moving water. 10J/E1** (BSL)
In the 1800s, new machinery and steam engines to drive them made it possible to manufacture goods in factories, using fuels as a source of energy. In the factory system, workers, materials, and energy could be brought together efficiently. 10J/M1*
The invention of the steam engine was at the center of the Industrial Revolution. It converted the chemical energy stored in wood and coal into motion energy. The steam engine was widely used to solve the urgent problem of pumping water out of coal mines. As improved by James Watt, Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer, it was soon used to move coal; drive manufacturing machinery; and power locomotives, ships, and even the first automobiles. 10J/M2*
The Industrial Revolution developed in Great Britain because that country made practical use of science, had access by sea to world resources and markets, and had people who were willing to work in factories. 10J/H1*
The Industrial Revolution increased the productivity of each worker, but it also increased child labor and unhealthy working conditions, and it gradually destroyed the craft tradition. The economic imbalances of the Industrial Revolution led to a growing conflict between factory owners and workers and contributed to the main political ideologies of the 20th century. 10J/H2
Today, changes in technology continue to affect patterns of work and bring with them economic and social consequences. 10J/H3*
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