The Curveball Flyer & Being a Scientist

Hi, I'm Jared. Welcome to Fun Science Demos. So what's so exciting about a styrofoam or a plastic or a paper cup and how can we ever use these in science? Well, check out what happens when I tape two cups together and launch them into the air. So now I'm going to wrap a rubber band around these cups two or three times, pull back and launch it into the air. That was absolutely amazing to think that two cups taped together could actually take flight. It was so cool. Let's take another look. So I'm going to give you a closer look how to actually wrap the rubber band. I pinched a rubber band to the cup with my thumb. I stretch it and pull it as I wrap once and twice. And now let's see it take flight. Three, two, one. One of the many things that scientists do is measure and study those measurements. So using these two cups taped together, what could we measure? Well, let's step back and take a closer look at that. Well, first thing, if we're going to measure, we're going to need a meter stick. And using our meter stick against the wall, we can measure anything. We can measure how high the cup actually goes into the sky. We can measure how far the cup travels. And if we even had a timer, we could time how long that cup will stay in the air. But remember that scientists study what they measure. So how can we study what we measure with these cups? Well, we're going to need to write that down. Where do we write it down? In a data table. A data table might look something like this. So what do we possibly do with all of this data that we collect? Well, here at fun science demos, we like to call these little cups our curve ball flyers. And the neat thing is that we can make many different types of curve ball flyers using cups of different materials, plastic styrofoam paper, different weights and different sizes. We can try little tiny cups. We can try styrofoam cups. We can try bigger cups. And when we gather all of that data, how high they fly, how far out they fly, how long they stay in the air, we can compare that data between flyers to see which one is the best. And that makes us a scientist. So let's take a closer look and see how some of these other curve ball flyers fly. Wrapping up the small one. We're going to call this one, the firecracker. One, one, two, two wraps. Let's see how she takes the flight. Let's try the styrofoam cup. One, two, two wraps. Watch it take flight. Now let's try the plastic cup. One, two, two wraps. Beautiful. Let's try the grandpa. Here we go. Pinch the rubber band. One, two. Did you notice how each curve ball flyer flew differently? Using science, we can measure, take different measurements and compare each curve ball flyer to see which one flew the best. That is science. The other thing is, did you notice, I only wrapped the rubber band twice around each flyer, each cup. I wonder what would happen if I wrapped it three times around, four times around, five times around. That's something else we can measure and compare to see if it really makes a difference. And that makes us a scientist. Scientists also never stop wondering and questioning. I wonder what happens if instead of a cup, I use something that's light and round and plastic like a straw. Let's take a look at that. I'm going to use a lighter rubber band for this straw. Get it as close to the middle, pinch the rubber band and wrap it once, twice, pull back and see what happens. Remember scientists measure and collect data. In another video, we're going to teach you how to make your own versions of curve ball flyers. But for now you can click on the data table in the video description and go out and build your own curve ball flyers. And don't forget to measure how high they go, how far they go, how long they stay in the air. And then you too can compare to see which is the best curve ball flyer. Science is so cool, especially when it takes flight. Thanks for watching.