Randomised Friday 10th July 2009 Issue 31 Welcome to the last Randomised of the (school) year! Are you going to miss us? Aaaaaaw. Never mind, we’ve got two fabulous giveaways to cheer you up while we’re away. Read on... Planet Picks - New Games Battle for Planet Science Gear Giveaway 1 - IMAX tickets for Harry Potter Over 2U! - Science experiments for you to try at home... Gear Giveaway 2 - Tickets for The Deep Winners - Family pass to Thinktank

1. Planet Picks - Come and visit us!

Mission Adaptation - A fast game of knowledge and quick reactions. You are a wildlife photographer travelling to different environments to snap the inhabitants as they fleetingly pop up. You have to have your wits about you too - it's you against everyone else who plays the game to see who can find the creatures and plants the fastest and answer the questions about their particular adaptations to their environment. You'll be jinxed by the jellyfish and puzzled by the water lily pad. Pick up useful items for your journey for extra oomph and try to avoid naughty non-native species, they'll really hold you up! Bon Voyage!

Body Bits Pinball - Think you know about the human body and where everything is huh? Well take a look at our weird and widely dispersed body bits, spread out to make a fine yet frustrating pinball table. You gather points by keeping the ball on the table, you can also do some fact-finding about the organs you’ve been tickling after your game. Twang! Ping ping ping....flip flip....ping....etc.
Happy pinballing!

And lastly, there’s still time to enter the Tennis Teaser. Ten tennis testers, then there’s a Wimbledon Beach Towel and beach tennis set to be won if you score straight sets. Are you game?


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2. Battle for Planet Science

Episode 10 - Battle for Planet Science

Are your superhero/superheroine skills and science knowledge up to the challenge? Wearing the outfits and armed with the accessories you've selected, can the superhero clones save Planet Science? It's time to Battle for Planet Science!

Have you played the Planet Super Powers! game, read the comic strip or did you enter the competition? Tell us what you think about them and you'll be entered into the prize draw to win a detective kit and spy's handbook. Send your comments to Miz Ingenuity at mizingenuity@f2s.com with MY PSP in the subject line.

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3. Gear Giveaway 1

IMAX tickets for Harry Potter

Wow! What a fab giveaway! We’ve got a family pass (2 adults and 3 children) to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince at the IMAX at Thinktank in Birmingham. The tickets are valid for the 2.30pm showing on Saturday 18 July.

If you’d like to win it then send us an email with your name and address, and the words ‘GO POTTY’ in the subject line, to randomised.news@nesta.org.uk The draw will take place at 5pm on Tuesday 14 July.

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4. Over 2U! - - Science experiments for you to try at home...

Magnus Effect

You will need:

● Two polystyrene cups
● Sticky tape
● Two large rubber bands

What to do:

1. Use sticky tape to fix the bottoms of the polystyrene cups together.

2. Knot the rubber bands together.

3. Hold the rubber band in the centre of the cups and wrap the bands around about twice. Finish with the end of the elastic bands on the bottom pointing away from you.

4. Hold the cup in one hand and the end of the elastic in your other hand.

5. Pull back the cups and let go.

6. With enough practice you should be able to make the flying cups loop in the air.

What's happening?

This is known as the Magnus effect, and it is the reason why top footballers can make balls curve in the air and how golfers can make golf balls perform some amazing aerodynamics.

The cups are fired forward because of the stretched elastic band. If we ignore the fact the cups are spinning we can see that air will flow over the cups from front to back in a fairly uniform way.

However, in this system, when the cups are released the bands unwind and the cups are forced to spin. If the bands are wound correctly the cups will be given back spin; the bottom of the cups move forwards while the top is moving backwards. Because of the rough surface of the cups, air is trapped near the surface and moves with the cups as they spin.

The top of the cups have air moving from front to back as they spins, and the cups also have air flowing over them from front to back because they are flying through the air. The bottom of the cups also have air moving from the front to the back because they are flying through the air, but, crucially, the bottom also has air moving back to the front because of the direction of the spinning cups. Therefore, the cups are sitting in air which is moving very differently at different parts: there is fast moving air at the top while the air is close to being stationary at the bottom.

Faster air has a lower pressure, so the cups have low pressure above them and higher pressure underneath. The cups are forced upwards. As improbable as it seems, it is possible to make the cups travel backwards. To understand how you have to realise that the force making the cups lift is at right angles to the cups' forward motion. As the cups start to rise vertically they also experience a force at right angles to their new 'forward' motion. This lift force actually makes the cup move back towards you. On this return part of the loop the flow at the top and bottom of the cups are reversed, the cup is forced down, and then eventually forward along its original path.

The air resistance which allows the layer of air to stick to the surface of the cups also slows the cups down. It slowly stops the cups from spinning and as the spin is reduced so the lift vanishes. The cups start to drop and eventually hit the floor. This activity came from Magnus Effect activity on the Planet SciCast site.

Hey - have you sent your SciCast film in yet? Go on, give it a go!

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5. Gear Giveaway 2

The Deep in Hull is a conservation and educational charity which runs one of the deepest and most spectacular aquariums in the world. It is a unique blend of stunning marine life, the latest interactives and audio-visual presentations which together tell the dramatic story of the world’s oceans.

Highlights include 40 sharks and 3500 fish, Europe’s deepest viewing tunnel, a glass lift ride through a 10m deep tank and a 3D film! Find out more at www.thedeep.co.uk

New for 2009 - Lost Oceans!
The amazing story of our prehistoric oceans and the incredible animals that dwelt in their depths. How were they lost...or were they? Exhibition includes Monsters of The Deep in 3D and our new aquarium exhibit featuring the fish that walk on land! Lost Oceans opens at Easter, for full events programme and film show times see the events section www.thedeep.co.uk

And those lovely bods at The Deep have given us a family pass (5 tickets) to give away!

If you’d like to win it then send us an email with your name and address, and the words ‘DEEPLY’ in the subject line, to randomised.news@nesta.org.uk The draw will take place at 5pm on Tuesday 14 July.

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6. Winners - Has your name been picked out of the bag?

Last time we were offering a family pass to Thinktank. The lucky winner is Emma Allen of Derby. We hope you enjoy your visit. Watch out watch out there’s a stegosaurus about!

See you in September folks!

*** Planet Science Alert!! ***

Planet Science Website and Newsletter will be moving from NESTA to another organisation in the near future - more exciting news to come of that soon. So soon we’ll be asking you if you want to sign up for your newsletter again if you want to carry on receiving them. This is because we can’t hand over your details to another organisation - it’s against the law. But don’t sign up yet, we’ll tell you when the new database is ready!

THAT'S ALL FOR NOW

You've been Randomised! Send any questions, comments, jokes or experiment ideas to: randomised.news@nesta.org.uk

Bye for now!

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