Flying Tires! Justin Low St John's School Floor Location: J11P

The goal of my project was to find out about the science behind a Disneyland ride. I chose to do a project like this because I love Disney and going to Disneyland. The ride that I have chosen to base my project on is called Luigi's Flying Tires. My project is split into two parts, a research side and an experiment side. In the research side, I found out that each ride vehicle is a hovercraft. This led me to research the topic of hovercrafts. I found out that a hovercraft uses the power of air to push itself off the ground to make it "hover." On top of a hovercraft, fans push air down under the hovercraft into an air bag attached to the hovercraft called the skirt. In the skirt, air circulates until the air escapes through small holes in the bottom of the skirt and spreads out under the hovercraft. The air forms a small gap between the ground and the hovercraft. This makes the hovercraft look like it is "hovering." On the experiment side, I created my own working model hovercraft using what I learned about hovercrafts. It is made up of foam core, a shower curtain and a blow dryer. When I first tested it, it just tipped over and did not "hover" This is when I learned that the balance of a hovercraft is a very important variable that can change the performance of a hovercraft. Instead of the air being pushed out evenly under the hovercraft, the air all escaped to only one side, not allowing the hovercraft to "hover." To balance out the hovercraft, I needed to find a weight that was about the same weight as the blow dryer containing the fan. This turned out to be a paperweight. I had to carefully balance out the hovercraft. I finally got the hovercraft balanced out and made sure that the air was spreading out under the hovercraft. After I got the model to work, I tested the hovercraft on different surfaces like hardwood floors and carpets. Each surface had a different result. My hypotheses were correct. I also learned that the science behind hovercrafts is being used in rescue missions, transportation and entertainment. I think that hovercrafts are not recognized as much as they should be. I think I am prepared to compete at the science fair.