Build Heron’s Fountain
Teach your kids a little engineering history with this fun fountain project.
Science
Long Now – Mechanicrawl
On July 12th, the Long Now Foundation is presenting the Mechanicrawl event. Mechanicrawl is a progressive tour through the mechanical wonders of San Francisco’s North Shore! You’ll be able to map your own route to see the SS Jeremiah O’Brien with it’s giant steam engine running, the most complex mechanical computer ever built, The Torpedo […]
Green Science Fair contest
Instructables has teamed up with Discover magazine to bring you the Green Science Fair contest. Deadline for entries is June 6 – there are some great prizes! Green Science Fair Contest
Tim Hunkin explains it all
Tim Hunkin is known for his automata – the Disgusting Spectacle at Maker Faire 2007 was inspired by one of his pieces. He’s also a talented explainer. You can find entertaining explanations for a huge range of topics at his site, Rudiments of Wisdom. Related: Tim Hunkin’s giant automaton clock for the London Zoo The […]
Chia Pet meets the solar cell
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego have come up with a way of making solar photovoltaic cells more efficient by making them fuzzy with nanowires. Boosting solar cell efficiency The idea is [to] use nanowires to more efficiently conduct electrons from the collection surface of the solar cell to an electrode. Contemporary thin-film […]
Make a marble machine
The Science Museum of Minnesota’s Studio 3D has some great kid’s projects. I especially like the Marble Machine, which incorporates recycling and simple electronics and kinetics. Marble machine Related: The Way Things Go (one of our favorite DVDs!)
Rocket motor design software
BurnSim ($39) is a solid rocket motor ballistic simulation program (Windows only) now in its third version. In a nutshell, input your motor, nozzle and propellant characteristics and BurnSim calculates the Kn (kilonewton) through the burn and predicts estimated chamber pressure and motor performance. Once your motor design is in BurnSim, you can tweak the […]
