Balloon Project #3

Today in class we cut out one pattern for a larger balloon and drew out another one.  Each of these patterns has a base with the 2 foot equilateral base triangle as determined from our math from last week.  The pattern we cut out has side flaps with an angle of 75 degrees and is in two pieces.  This is different from the test model built last week in that it is:  larger, the angles are slightly different, and it will have different seams to glue together.  The other balloon pattern has 70 degree angles for its flaps, yet it is drawn out over the span of two pieces of paper.  We are using our alum solution on our construction paper.  David finished construction on the cylinder-tissue model, and we took it to the Center of the Universe for a test run.  We used 5 candles, and found that there was some heat being produced inside the vessel.  The balloon "puffed up" some, but did not float.  Our formula dictates 7 candles would make it float, it seems that we are on the right track.  We have some video of this morning's test run, that will get posted to one of our blogs.  Fro Wednesday's class our group wants to go to the Balloon Fiesta for inspiration.  We plan to test one of our production models on site, although we will probably need to tether our balloon so as not to cause problems for the other aeronautic engineers on location.  We'll be bringing a camera to document our progress and take note of things we think will be useful for our final product.