Savina Thompson Harjinder Hundal

Debbie Riche Yesica Avendano

Engineering Notebook: Boat Investigation

Problem:
How does increasing the number marbles change the speed of a foil boat?

Hypothesis:
Increasing the number of marbles will decrease the speed of a foil boat.

Test:
We will create a boat made of foil that will float in a tub of water. We will use a fan to push the
boat forward and measure the time it takes for the boat to cross the tub and use this to calculate
speed. We will then add marbles to see how the added weight changes the speed of the boat.
Zero marbles will be our control group.

Materials:
Foil
Tape
Marbles
Fan

Modifications:
We thought we could add straws to keep the direction the same and/or make it more buoyant
but found that it didn’t work as well as we thought. We took out the straws.
We also noticed that the fan operator did not control the angle of the fan.
Savina Thompson Harjinder Hundal
Debbie Riche Yesica Avendano

Data:

Length boat must travel:_______​12.5 inches​_________

Number of
marbles Time Average Speed
Trial 1 0 2.58 2.59 4.826254826
Trial 2 0 2.6
Trial 1 1 2.53 2.49 5.020080321
Trial 2 1 2.45
Trial 1 2 2.9 2.475 5.050505051
Trial 2 2 2.05
Trial 1 3 4.17 3.415 3.660322108
Trial 2 3 2.66
Trial 1 4 2.25 2.55 4.901960784
Trial 2 4 2.85
Trial 1 5 2.85 2.715 4.604051565
Trial 2 5 2.58
Trial 1 6 2.84 2.95 4.237288136
Trial 2 6 3.06
Savina Thompson Harjinder Hundal
Debbie Riche Yesica Avendano
Savina Thompson Harjinder Hundal
Debbie Riche Yesica Avendano

Conclusion:
As the number of marbles increase, the speed increases for the first three marbles and then it
starts to decrease.
Savina Thompson Harjinder Hundal
Debbie Riche Yesica Avendano

3D Print Design:

Results:
Our boat carried 1 marble for 58 inches. The marbles still moved around even though it had
compartments. The bottom of the boat scrapped the bottom of the pipe.
It did pretty good, it made it a good distance. Since the boat was very shallow it did not sink as
easily as others. The design was well thought, since it was very stable which allowed it to go
farther.

Boat did great job, it covered 58 inches with one marble in it. I think if there was more water in
the pipe, it could help the boat to carry more marbles. Great job Team!

Our design seemed to be successful, although the water was shallow and the boat dragged a
bit. Because of the drag, we only put in one marble. Our boat traveled 58 inches, but we didn’t
win due to another team traveling half the distance but with more marbles.