Hockey Science fair project

[snipecity 0]

Just wondering if anybody had any ideas. I was thinking how far back should you pull the puck back on a wrister for max speed. Just wanting some ideas.

Thanks

[AIREAYE 248]

When I was in middle school, I did one using gears and the teeth's friction to pull and tie skate laces. Kinda like the Reebok Boa system on rec skates. Didn't generate anything close to the amount of torque needed (it didn't work at all), but a decent presentation board and explanation of what it was supposed to do managed to net me a prize for 'innovation' and $100 LOL. Moral of the story is, even though the project may not change anything, sell it well!

Maybe you could accomplish what I couldn't and come up with something like Boa to help lace skates. Though there are other things out there trying to address that problem now. I also thought about what it would take to make an unbreakable stick, but that's nonsense looking back now lol

[Souldriver 64]

do you have to come up with something new, or do you have to just explain how things happen. ie do you need to come up with a lace tie-er, or do you just need to explain the physics of why a flexed stick adds to the shot.

[snipecity 0]

anything. If it isn't inapropriate in any way I should be fine. Obviously there is no copying other science fair ideas.

[AIREAYE 248]

How about doing something with foams, like the type (VN) used in helmets versus EPP. You can compare EVA type foams with Poron, or d3o. Maybe do some sort of impact comparison with shoulder pads and caps. Doesn't have to be an invention, but rather a simple to-the-point but clear analysis on a hypothesis about impacts and forces and such.

[snipecity 0]

@AIREAYE- Great Idea, I was thinking of a similar idea, but I kinda hit a roadblock. I need something that will generate the same type of force everytime that I use it.

If anybody else has any ideas, let em fly.

[Chadd 916]

@AIREAYE- Great Idea, I was thinking of a similar idea, but I kinda hit a roadblock. I need something that will generate the same type of force everytime that I use it.

If anybody else has any ideas, let em fly.

Dropping the puck from a fixed height should suffice for that. Physics says that it should hit with the same force every time.

[Capt.Hook 23]

We've done two with my son. Not incredibly scientific but we did slapshot tests with a radar gun and 3 different flexes with the hypothesis being that the lowest flex would produce the quickest shot. It worked out well.

Second one was having to do with stride length - short and choppy versus long and full and how it affects straightaway speed. Again, we had human error available in both but we used more than one test subject and my son did well on both of them.

[Souldriver 64]

Dropping the puck from a fixed height should suffice for that. Physics says that it should hit with the same force every time.

this, i dont know where you can get them but they make color change stickers that show how much force something was hit with and if it would of caused an injury.

[Law Goalie 147]

The foam is a really good idea, and Chadd's methodology plus SD's force-stickers (that's awesome!) would work perfectly.

If you wanted to throw an additional wrinkle, you could heat and cool the foams slightly before rounds of testing: one at rink temp, one at 'pond' temp, one room standard, one heated up to body temp. I can tell you right now that VN is a lot harder when cold than EVA...

[AIREAYE 248]

If you wanted to flirt with the 'optimal flex' idea, you could develop a simple linear program that accounts for height, weight, preferred stick length etc. Run experiments with different people using the radar gun and the same stick in 3 flexes. This one might be much costlier than the foam thing though.

[snipecity 0]

Thanks.

I was just wondering where I could get the color change stickers. I did a brief search on the internet and nothing really popped up.

Edit: I just talked to my mom. Apparently we need something cheaper. So Back To The Drawing Board;)

[Souldriver 64]

ummm the stickers i am not sure of where to get but they use them constantly on mythbusters and they have shown and mentioned them a couple times on the show.

[leonzhu 7]

instead of colour change (shock watch) stickers, why not just use carbon paper and see if it marks the normal paper below? or put an iphone below with an accelerometer reading app.

puck O

foam ======

carbon paper -------

paper ______

[Law Goalie 147]

Edit: I just talked to my mom. Apparently we need something cheaper. So Back To The Drawing Board;)

If you want to go *really* cheap, you could do a 'What does hockey tape do?' experiment. To most hockey players the answer is obvious, but to the laity, less so. While I doubt there's a way to measure the RPM on the puck, the theory wouldn't be hard to illustrate.