LilyPad Decorative Holder and Buoyancy Test by joejames38

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

This is a LilyPad based candle holder and buoyancy demonstration. It uses modifiable ballasts to change the buoyancy of the assembly. The design was inspired in part from nature's lily pad and in part from concept cities that are designed to float on water. http://inhabitat.com/lilypad-floating-cities-in-the-age-of-global-warming/
This part was designed as a low scale learning model to teach and test buoyancy concepts. My hope is that parents and educators can use this thing to teach buoyant force aspects of science to the next generation of innovators.
This thing was made with PLA on a Replicator 2x using 2 shells and 10% infill.
The buoyant force pushing upward on the lilypad is generated from the air pocket made during the fabrication process of the ballasts. Since air is less dense than water, the displaced water causes and upward force to counter that of gravity pulling downward on the lily pad and the mass of the coins on top of it. As shown in the pictures, the bigger the ballast, the more weight, and more coins, the lily pad could hold without sinking. These concepts is what makes steel ships float.