Butterfly Flight + 2D Wind Tunnel Simulation
Use the relationship between swimming and flapping flight to create a simple 2D wind tunnel that you can use to see the airflow around a butterfly’s “Clap and Fling” take-off!
Along the way, discover some of the other magical aspects of butterflies as seen through the eyes of an engineer!
Plus learn a cool way to decorate desserts using principles of laminar flow.
Materials list:
- 4 cups of milk (cow’s milk… something that will thicken with pudding mix!)
- Pudding mix-vanilla, lemon, or banana cream – something light in color to show the food coloring (we’ll only use a couple tablespoons)
- A whisk or rotary beater to mix our pudding & milk together
- Food coloring – 2 different colors
- A large pan, about 9” x 13”
- Some wood tooth picks
- An index card, 3” x 5” or 4” x 6”
- Some tape (you’ll need to tape two toothpicks to the index card)