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Re: Action - Reaction Demo

We do this 3rd Law demo evert fall here at the Naval Academy. Answers to
the posed questions are threaded in the text below after each.

On Tue, 15 Sep 1998, Tony Wayne wrote:

Has anyone every made an action reaction demonstration using a fire
extinguisher or air tank of some kind?

If you have:
1 What did you learn about your design that you like or would do
different?

Nothing, the demo works great. We place a MIDN (Midshipman student)
seated on a "wide skateboard" (actually an old plank of wood with the
equivalent of the parts of a pair of old metal "street skates" attached at
the corners). The MIDN is given an old Marine Flight Helmet (mine) to
wear, and then told to gently squeeze the "trigger" of the fire
extinguisher. The demo is quite memorable and all of our MIDN enjoy it
greatly.

2 What was your vehicle?

We place a MIDN (Midshipman student) seated on a "wide skateboard"
(actually an old plank of wood with the equivalent of the parts of a pair
of old metal "street skates" attached at the corners). I'm sure one of
the modern "wBig Guy" shate boards would do. The MIDN is given an old
Marine Flight Helmet (mine) to wear, and then told to gently squeeze the
"trigger" of the CO2 fire extinguisher. The demo is quite memorable and
all of our MIDN enjoy it greatly.

3 Would you change about your design and how?

Possible, add a copper vent hose to take the exhaust past the MIDN's head
by about 1 foot so it would not be quite so noisey.

4 Do you use a fire extinguisher?

See #2 above.

5 What to you fill the extinguisher with?

See #2 above.

6 What should I look for in buying an extinguisher?

We get them on loan from the Fire Dept., use them, then turn them back to
the Fire Chief. It seems that there are always a supply of fire
extinguishers that need to be refilled and they want to empty them before
refill.

7 What do you pay to get it refilled? >

We don't pay for the refill --- the Fire Dept. was going to do that
anyway. These are extinguishers that are coming back in to be refilled
because they were "less than full" on some periodic inspection.

Thanks for the help and insight ahead of time. > -tony
--
========================================================
Tony Wayne Those that can, do.
wayne@pen.k12.va.us Those that understand, teach.


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ERTEL SENDS.
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