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Science 5: How to Make a Water Wheel 8 Views


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Description:

We guess...maybe you could freeze the water? But it'd still be pretty slippery, and what would you even use the wheels for? Let's check out this video and see what water wheels are.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

[Dino and Coop singing]

00:12

Guess what?

00:14

Today's video isn't going to be about boring old study techniques. [Kid at his desk with his eyes shut]

00:17

No, siree!

00:18

Today, we're going to be making water wheels out of plastic cups! [Picture of a water wheel]

00:22

Feel free to hit pause and go laugh at your friends who are learning about boring old

00:26

study techniques.

00:27

…Got it out of your system? [Kid gloating to his friend who is gloating]

00:29

Good.

00:30

But before we get to the construction part, let's get that whole "education" thing out

00:33

of the way...

00:34

Why are we building a water wheel today? [Guy looking confused]

00:37

Aside from it being fun, of course.

00:38

Because a water wheel is basically a miniature example of how hydropower works. [Pictures of big water wheels]

00:42

Hydropower uses fast-moving water to spin large wheels or turbines.

00:47

The energy generated here is then converted into electricity. [Each component of the water wheel is highlighted]

00:51

It's a sustainable form of energy, and a popular one at that. [Phone at the bottom of of a sink]

00:54

So let's hop to it!

00:56

First things first, the ingredients to our water wheel recipe:

01:00

One water and one wheel.

01:02

…Okay fine it's a little more complicated than that. [The glass of water is chucked onto a ship wheel]

01:05

For each water wheel, we'll need...

01:07

4 Styrofoam plates, a pencil, a plastic straw, ten small plastic cups, a roll of masking

01:12

tape, some string, and radioactive plutonium! [Guy in a biohazard suit with a barrel appears]

01:14

Wait no, not that.

01:16

Put that away.

01:17

Where did you even…never mind.

01:20

Alrighty, presumably, you have all those materials ready to go….

01:23

Step one, take two of your plates and tape them back to back... [The plates being taped together]

01:27

Like so.

01:28

Next, we've got to find the very center of this plate wheel of ours by balancing it on

01:33

the eraser end of a pencil, look at that! [Plate being balanced on the pencil]

01:36

Once you can balance it, then bingo!

01:38

You've found the center!

01:39

And it's there that you'll want to punch a hole through the plates with a pencil tip.

01:43

Now go back and do the exact same thing with the other two plates. [Pictures of the steps being repeated]

01:47

Aaaand….tahdah!

01:48

You've got two whole plate wheels.

01:50

Once you're done basking in the beauty of your creation, set those two wheels aside [French guy looking smug]

01:54

for a moment.

01:55

Now, grab that roll of masking tape and roll out about two feet of tape onto the table,

01:59

sticky side up.

02:00

Otherwise it's going to be a huge pain to get it off the table.

02:03

Also be sure not to tear it off the rest of the roll, just in case you need a little more later. [Coop pointing at a blackboard]

02:08

Then take nine of your plastic cups and stick them down on the tape, one after another,

02:13

just like you see here.

02:14

If you have one cup left over, good, we'll need that later.

02:17

Once you've stuck all nine cups onto the tape, tear that tape off of the roll. [Row of cups attached to the tape]

02:21

Now comes the tricky part…

02:23

Take your strip of cups and wrap it around one of your wheels, so that all nine cups

02:28

all face the same direction and are evenly spread out around the whole wheel. [Picture of the wheel]

02:32

If you decide to move some cups around, now's a great chance to do it.

02:37

Once you're happy with the placement, grab your roll and don't be afraid to go a bit

02:40

overboard securing everything to your wheel. [Guys face and body covered in tape]

02:42

Use a piece of tape to really stick down each cup, like so.

02:47

You don't want anything falling off later on.

02:49

Now that you've got your cup plate, tape your cupless plate to it, like so.

02:53

Aw, how nice.

02:54

It was getting a little lonely over there all by itself.

02:57

If it looks a bit weird and imbalanced because one side of the wheel doesn't have cups, don't [Dino pointing at a blackboard]

03:02

worry – it's supposed to look like that.

03:04

Take that piece of string of yours and tape one end to the empty plate, and then wind

03:09

it round and round the empty plate like you would a yo-yo.

03:11

Once that's done, there's only one step left before we get to use this puppy – and that's [Water wheel hung on a piece of string]

03:16

to stick your straw through the hole in the center of your plates.

03:19

This right here is your axle.

03:22

And bam!

03:23

Wheel complete! [Confetti falling]

03:24

Now it's time for you to set up your waterwheels.

03:26

You'll want to thread some string through the center straw and then tie each end of

03:30

the string to something nearby.

03:32

This way, your water wheel will be suspended in the air and ready for action.

03:35

From here, you'll place that final plastic cup right beneath it, and then tape the other [Last cup attached to the string]

03:40

end of your string to it.

03:42

Once you've done that, all that's left to do is get your waterwheel spinning.

03:47

You can use a big tub of water, a funnel, or a hose, but whatever you do, pay attention! [Someone spraying their wheel with a hose]

03:51

Yup.

03:52

Science is pretty awesome.

03:54

And, for a little extra fun, why not try and hose down your teacher? [Kid spraying a hose at his teacher]

03:57

…Just kidding.

03:58

…Kind of. [Teacher dripping wet]

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