Floatin' on Air

More true robotics coming up dear reader, but for now, a little technology-related diversion. Here's a picture of yours truly running an event for our engineering day for Young Astronaut Clubs. My professional society organizes this day every year. The event shown here was inspired by an experiment we did it physics lab back in college. The pipes are 1" PVC. Along the top are tiny holes, 1/4 inch apart. It's hooked up to an electric leaf blower. When the blower is turned on, it's like air hockey, except on a rail instead of a flat surface. The students' challenge was to make a sail powered vehicle to go down the rail as far and as fast as possible. It was a challenging task, but some of the teams did very well.