Kids discover a Rhino!

[jflis]

Me and 19 scouts with a pile of Rhino's! It's bulding season!

We have many requests and orders for our educational bulk packs from around the world. When they are local (within 90 min of here), I offer my services to either train-the-trainer or to teach the class and also offer to bring my club equipment out on launch day. This past week I had the opportunity to bring rocketry, in the form of a FlisKits Rhino, to the Cub Scouts in Hudson, NH.

I had taught a related group in Hudson last year around this time and it was a big hit. No less so this week They were excited and anxious to start but I spent the better part of a half hour describing rocketry to them and showing examples of the wide range of model rockets that are available should the decide to persue this hobby.

As with most of my classes, my intent is to help with the construction of the most complicated parts and describe ALL of the assembly steps then allow the children to finish the rockets on their own devices and/or with the help of parents and scout leaders. I prefer this method of teaching rocketry as I feel that the student learns a whole lot more about model building than to have their hand held through each and every step. In over 20 years of teaching an average of about 500 students a year, i'm 100% to date on successful builds followed by successful launches

Here are a couple of pix of the build session. We fly in about 2 weeks and I will do a followup with pix on our site.

 

[jflis]

Here we have a young boy learning about fillets and wondering just what DO you do with that glob of glue on the end of your finger....

 

[jflis]

This one boy amazed me. He was one of the quiet, timid ones who didn't ask a lot of questions and I was wondering how he was going to do...

on the very first step you have to measure 1/4" on the engine mount tube then measure again for 1". Everyone had their tools and their parts when he looked up at me with the big puppy eyes, holding his ruler and speaking in a whisper...

As I got closer, I noticed that he had a metric ruler... He wasn't sure what he should do. I said I would get him another ruler and as I was looking for an available one, i leaned over and said "you know, there are about 2.5 cm in an inch." As I handed him a new ruler, he said "no, that's ok, i'll use this one" as I noticed he had started making his calculations on the instructions for 1/4 of 2.5 cm....

He would pause for just a moment between steps to calculate the measurements in metric, make notes on the figures then use his metric ruler to assemble his Rhino. I made a point that 2.54 cm/in was a more accurate number, but 2.5 was fine for most cases... he quickly made note of the number.

yea... ...he's one of us

jim

 

[cydermaster]

Wish the UK Scouts did Rockets. I was a keen scout, staying in the movement 'till I was almost 20. If I'd found out about rockets when I was 11-12, I shudder to think how many rockets I'd have cluttering up my flat!

Its good to see you getting 'stuck-in', and actually helping with the classes, Jim - I know, you wouldn't do it if you didn't enjoy it.

The lad with the metric ruler tickles me; my best ruler is only calabrated in metric (infact nearly all my rulers are metric), and I often have to do the conversion.

 

[WiK]

Whoa, If only they did that sort of thing in school over here aswell! How about a TUKRC?


Looks fun! I would think the Rino is an ideal kit to do that sort of thing with.


And one question thats been bothering me: Why doesnt rocketry use metric?

 

[wwattles]

Originally posted by WiK
And one question thats been bothering me: Why doesnt rocketry use metric?

Or more accurately, why do we mix metric with English? Why motor mounts in metric and tube diameters and lengths in inches??? And we talk in terms of Newtons, which is also a metric unit (1 N = 1 kg.m/sec2). Go figure...

On the subject of metric rulers, I've got a doozy for you: Inches divided into 10ths and 100ths. I had to get one for my TLP rocket since all their drawings are made using a CAD program that prints in decimal inches!

WW

 

[lalligood]

There's a website I use rather frequently when I need to convert length, mass (weight), etc.

https://www.onlineconversion.com/

 

[jflis]

check *this* site for metric/english conversions. great stuff
https://www.worldwidemetric.com/metcal.htm

as for why they're mixed... well, that a *mix* of things...

The most likely reason is that we're lazy over here in America. If we dinna *have* to convert it, we don't...

But, sometimes this works both ways... (not sure if this is still true or not, but...) in the metic system countries, what is the size of the tire on your car? Is it an R15 or R14 or something similar? Well, now *you're* mixing... cuz that means it is a 15 inch or 14inch, etc... I know it used to be that way (same with tv and monitor screens), not sure if it's the same now...

are you using a 15" monitor? a 26" tv?

Somewhere down the road they decided to do motors in metric (13mm, 18mm, etc) and operation in newtons and the like. Everything else (including the length of the motor case in most cases) stayed engish.

go figure...

jim

 

[Stewart32]

that the U. S. of A. would get with the program (and all the other countries in the world (industrialized or no)), take the plunge and go metric. Comitment would greatly simplify just about everything in the long run.

 

I bet the shy kid would love to have a six inch engineer's scale with measurements in 32nd's and 64th's. It also has decimal equivilants on the backside.

A big thumbs up to you Jim for your time with the kids and the sport of model rocketry.

 

[cls]

speaking of mixing units, have you bought tires lately? notice the size? it's cm for width, a unit-less ratio for sidewall height, and inches for wheel size. gah!

 

[DavRedf]

cLs I thought that the ratio for sidewalls was the percentage between walls and tyre width.
Could be wrong though.

David