Hands-on Science and Engineering at Pasadena Public Library

Curiosity Machine

Oct. 8, 2014

Miss AnnMarie: Not a scientist and not a professor, just your

average librarian who likes learning new things.

What I thought of science when I was a

kid:

There’s so much memorization…

This is boring…

My experiments

never come out

right…I’ll never be a scientist or engineer because I don’t like math.

What I know NOW:It’s OK to try and fail. Sometimes great scientific discoveries, theories, or inventions happen when you don’t get the results you were expecting.

Examples:

*Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias (The Big Bang Theory)

*Alexander Fleming (Penicillin)

*Harry Coover (Super Glue)

*Roy Plunkett (Teflon)

*Charles Robert Richet (Allergies)

How to be a scientist:

Today’s project:

Build a suspension bridge across two chairs and see how much weight it can hold!

Your inspiration:

Learn from nature!

p. 21 of Do All Spiders Spin Webs? By Melvin and Gilda Berger, Illustrated by Roberto Osti, Published by Scholastic, 2000

Sir Isaac Newton, the genius behind our understanding that all forces of tension have to be in balance—both opposite and equal—in order for a bridge to stand!

Learn from scientists like:

p. 19 of Bridges! Amazing Structures to Design, Build & Test by Carol A. Johmann and Elizabeth J. Rieth, published by Williamson Publishing, 1999

John Roebling, who transformed the way people build bridges by realizing that a key weakness in many bridges of his time were their lack of stability and stiffness. He used steel and lots of trusses when building the Brooklyn Bridge, and developed new ways of spinning cables—wrapping strands together to make them strong. He also added trusses and stays to Ellet’s Niagra Bridge to make it stronger.

Learn from engineers like:

trusses

Tons of super-strong cables

Learn from mistakes!

Tacoma Narrows Bridge, 1940

Too narrow and dense. Not stable enough. Wind storm twisted the narrow steel plates. (Nowadays bridges are built with gaps in the plates to allow wind to pass through.)

Now YOU try!

When you get home, you can submit photos or videos of

your project to the Curiosity Machine website to get

feedback from engineers!

http://www.curiositymachine.org

Thank you for coming! See you next week!