July 2011 – Basement Science

Time for an Interesting Photo: In-Flight

September 30, 2016July 31, 2011 by Ben Washington

To all,

Here is an interesting photo I captured while in flight. I love looking out of the window during flights because you can see a lot of very interesting things, and this one I had not seen before. It it the shadow of the airplane on an adjacent cloud. This is neat in itself, but not very curious. The curious part is the ring of color bands like a rainbow surrounding the shadow. As a note to those concerned, my phone was on airplane mode, so no interference created here. You’ve got to obey those flight attendants!

Enter the Bell Mouth

September 30, 2016July 25, 2011 by Ben Washington

Dear Fellows of the Basement Science Research Consortium,

For those new to the field, it is an important lesson to learn that the longer and more complicated the organization name, the more prestigious and talented the group. Therefore, we are part of a very important research group!

Our next task is to build the bell mouth. An overview of this was explained here a little earlier. I was trying to think of a good way to construct this as I was wandering though

Welcome to Basement Science

September 30, 2016July 19, 2011 by Ben Washington

Welcome all to Basement Science, Hello, this is Ben Washington and you are reading our blog of Basement Science. I say “our” because I hope for you to perform your own research as well. We are a fledgling research group but with great potential. We have just been initiated to Scienceblog and are thrilled about … Read more

Test Section Legs

September 30, 2016July 19, 2011 by Ben Washington

Dear Fellow Basement Scientists,

Here we are, on to more construction. You may say, “What, I thought this was science not wood shop class!” Well, to conduct experimental science you have to build stuff. So, that is what we continue to do, building stuff to conduct our experimental science. Also remember, you have to build stuff right in order to get any good results.

Wind Tunnel Design Overview

September 30, 2016July 11, 2011 by Ben Washington

Fellow Basement Scientists,

Where we stand now is we have our “tunnel” and our measurement/test stand. We need to complete construction of our tunnel. Let’s now review the few basic remaining parts of a wind tunnel. Please refer to my highly technical drawing below which lays out our plan. The main drawing is in blue, the rest are a few dimensions I was working out.

Spring coefficient

September 30, 2016July 5, 2011 by Ben Washington

This section is a lot more theory than construction, which is good because if there was no theory in this basement we couldn’t call this science.

For our force measurement we are going to use springs as discussed earlier. I explained in “Lift and Drag Measurement Gauge” a little about linear springs. But here is a little refresher. Your common daily use springs are pretty closely defined as linear springs. This means that the force exerted by the spring varies linearly with the length stretched by the springs. This idea is captured by the equation F=-k*x. Force equals the negative of the spring coefficient, k, times the length stretched, x. There is a negative because if you pull it to the right, it pushes to the left. Not all springs are linear and even your common springs are not exactly linear, but it is close enough. As you dig into science, you will find that many of the things you learn are not exact but pretty close. Maybe that is more true for engineering than science.