Monday 11 June 2018

The Magnus Effect/Force


We had some special visitors with us today. They are part of the Royal Society Science Leadership Programme and came to see how we do Science at our school.

They helped us with a tricky experiment trying to get cardboard tubes to fly. You could try this one at home
You need:
A strong table
elastic (about 1cm width) 2/3 the length of the table (un-stretched)
A cardboard tube - try different lengths and weights
Tape (or someone's finger to hold the elastic down)
Some room for flying objects!

What to do:
Attach the elastic to the edge of the table and stretch the elastic out to the other end of the table. Roll it 6-7 turns onto the centre of the tube (The first couple of turns to trap the elastic onto the cardboard)
Wind it as though it were a carpet carpet you were going to roll out, in other words, the elastic needs to leave the cardboard on the underside of the tube.
Now hold the tube at the centre and let go. The roll should take off and curve upwards as it travels across the room



(After lots of experimenting we finally succeeded!)


(When Mr Stuart and I tried this a few years ago!)

Here's an explanation from the Physics Girl