The Fluid Power Educational Foundation

Student Outcomes:  

Student will diagram a pop can

containing hot air suddenly losing heat and the resulting change in density of air molecules.

Major Area Of Instruction:

Air density can be made to change.

Suggested Activities:  

Demonstration: "Imploding pop cans"

1. Heat pop cans with a small      amount of water in them on a      hot plate until they steam.

2. Flip the cans over into a cake      pan holding cold water, holding them with tongs.

3. They will implode.  

Demonstration: Burn paper in bottle with a peeled, hard-boiled egg in the bottle mouth. Egg will be drawn into the bottle.  

Student Activity:

Build a Cartesian diver using a Water-filled, 2-liter plastic bottle, and an eyedropper filled with water to the point where it just floats on the top of the water in the bottle. Screw the top on tightly.

1. Press the sides of the bottle.

2. Release the sides of the bottle.

3. Notice the water level inside     the eyedropper as you do each     several times.

Demonstration: Magdeberg Hemispheres

Student Outcomes:

Major Area Of Instruction:

Suggested Activities:  

Lecture: Weather including:

1. High and low pressure air masses

2. Convection currents (equator,     poles and winds)

3. Speed vs. shape of air masses

4. Weather fronts  

Demonstrations: Make a mercury barometer and compare with an aneroid barometer.  

Use a topographic map to find your area's height above sea level. Calculate your psi.  

Cut out weather maps from the newspaper and note the lines that represent isobars and isotherms.

Compare these maps and make weather predictions.  

Lecture, demonstrations and student activities on relative humidity and (using a sling psychrometer to record relative humidity) temperature and weather conditions several days in a row.

Student Outcomes:

Student will compare the difficulty of blowing up a balloon inside and outside a bottle and explain that difference in terms of air pressure.   

The student will:

1. Identify where air pressure is     being applied to this system.

2. Measure the length of each     stream of water.

3. Make a conclusion about     whether a gas acts more like a     fluid or a solid when pressure     is applied.

Major Area Of Instruction:

Air takes the shape of the container in which it rests.

Ø      Air exerts pressure.

Ø      Confined gas will transmit pressure regardless of how it is generated (Pascal's law)

Ø      Solids transfer pressure in the direction of the force applied.

Ø      Fluids (including gases)    transmit pressure in all      directions.

Suggested Activities:  

Demonstration or student activities:

1. Blow up different shaped     balloons.

2. Perhaps make balloon animal to create interest.

Student activity:

1. Have student inflate an easy to blow up balloon.

2. Put the balloon into an empty     soft drink bottle stretching the     neck of the balloon over the       mouth of the bottle.

3. Have student attempt to blow     up the balloon again.

4. Put holes in another bottle. Set up as in #3. Why can one     blow up the balloon now?  

Demonstration or student activity:

1. Drill three holes into a     three-pound coffee can on     three sides at different heights.

    These holes should be fitted    with the same size corks.

2. Fill the can with water.

3. Take out one cork at a time.

(Notice that the three streams of water are the same length.)

Student Outcomes:  

Given a series of situations, the student will be able to analyze each situation to determine:

1. If work is being done

2. If potential or kinetic energy is     being demonstrated.

3. If potential energy is being     converted into kinetic energy.

The student will research and present (in an organized manner) one current or past issue of pneumatics.

1. Work it is designed to do.

2. How it is designed to do the     work.

3. What it replaced.

4. Advantages and disadvantages.  

Culminating student activity:

Balloon rocket contest (groups of four)

1. Use two students to hold a      string the length of the room      (taut).

2. Give a variety of balloons,      masking tape and a straw (to      attach the balloon to the string).

3. Design the fastest balloon     rocket.

Major Area Of Instruction:

Air can be compressed. 

Air can be used to do work (displacement over distance).    

Compressed air contains potential energy which can be converted into kinetic energy.   

Compressed air has been used to do work since early in man’s history and continues to have major applications in industry today.  

All pneumatic systems operate by applying a force over an area.

Suggested Activities:  

Lecture and demonstration on air pressure and air compression.  

Use a bicycle pump to blow up an inner tube.

1. Show how pump works.

2. Discuss differences in pressure      as you are blowing up the tube, when tube is full and when deflating the tube.  

Lecture and demonstration on:

1. Work

a)      Pushing a stationary wall

b)      Pushing a moving desk

c)      Carrying a book across a room

2. Potential and Kinetic Energy

a)      Fill a balloon with air

b)      Release balloon

3. The history of using compressed air to do work.  

Lecture:

(Compressed air from a pump ® switch or valve ® pneumatic cylinder [compressed air expands against a cylinder forcing a piston to move] ®  linear motion).  

Demonstration on the operation of a blow gun.

Student Outcomes:  

The student will connect and operate a pneumatic pump, switch and cylinder.  

The student will follow instructions to construct a simple pneumatic system.

The student will investigate and record the advantages and disadvantages of a given pneumatic device.

Major Area Of Instruction:

There are advantages and disadvantages to the use of pneumatic systems.

Suggested Activities:  

Disadvantages:

1. The energy required to      compress air is expensive. 

2. Compressed air must be kept      clean and moisture free.   

3.Pneumatic devices cause noise     and can spray lubricating oil.

4. Pneumatic devices are limited in the force they can produce.