Tin Foil Boat Marbles

The shapes of the boats all helped to spread out the weight of the boat.

Tin foil boat marbles.

For example you could make one square be 12 inches by 12 inches or 30 centimeters cm by 30 cm and make the second square be 6 inches by 6 inches or 15 cm by 15 cm. Form the foil over one of your shapes. Cut a piece of tin foil 5 x 6 inches. You can use more or less if you want.

Many moons ago when i was in high school my english teacher gave us an assignment to try and build a boat out of two sheets of aluminum foil that were each 2 square feet in area 1 x2. Fold the two aluminum foil squares into two different boat hulls. Fold up the sides of the boat so it will not sink and hold a cargo of pennies. Build a boat out of aluminum foil and see how many marbles your boat can hold.

See how many pennies your boat can carry before it sinks. Whichever boat was able to support the most weight wins. Then you open up the fold edges and stand them straight up. Introduce the challenge how many marbles can you rescue from the shark.

12 x 12 aluminum foil ruler scissors pen pencil i hand folded everything. A large tub of water. Begin adding pennies for the boat s cargo. Then reshape your boat to see if you can get it to hold more marbles than your first try.

Small weights marbles nuts bolts and washers then do this. Tin foil bowl scissors pennies water directions. Rip off a square of foil. How much space a boat takes up can help spread out the gravity over a larger area.

Add marbles one at a time until it sinks. Materials needed metric ruler scissors 2 pieces of aluminum foil 16 cm x 13 5 cm big bowl of water 30 to 40. Aluminum foil boat experiment continued aluminum foil boat experiment was it your largest boat that could hold the most weights. Aluminum foil heavy duty works best empty containers in different shapes such as bowls cups yogurt tubs tennis ball tubes small boxes etc.

Test your design to see if it floats. You will start with a rectangular piece of foil. Check out my tpt store for the complete stem activity challenge package. Place the boat in the bowl of water.

A larger boat usually holds more weight than a smaller one. Read the book shark in the dark discuss what you know about sharks. Cut two squares of aluminum foil making one square have dimensions that are twice that of the other square. Remember to be gentle with your foil and dry it off between trials.

Design a boat using aluminum foil. Finally you will pinch the corners together to close off the edges.