Make your own tabletop hovercraft

Have you seen someone riding a hoverboard at the mall, in the park or on TV recently? Using a hoverboard to move faster in large areas is the latest craze. Have you seen how the riders seem to be gliding on a cushion of air?

The earlier version of the hoverboard is the hovercraft, a vehicle that uses air to lift it off the ground or water.

Today you will make your own balloon-powered hovercraft. Find out why it can glide over a smooth surface and if the amount of air in the balloon affects how long it can keep moving. Try testing the hovercraft on different surfaces and see which type of surface works best.

About the series

ARE YOU one of those students who is afraid of Science? Do you think there is no fun in learning Science?

In keeping with its mission, “Bayer: Science for a Better Life,” and its enthusiasm for research, Bayer wants to pass on to young people like you the joy of discovery and the excitement in learning. By putting together simple, educational and fun experiments, Bayer encourages elementary school students to learn Science by doing Science.

The Bayer Smiling Kiddie Einsteins series offers students, teachers and even parents hands-on and inquiry-based experiences that involve observing, hypothesizing, analyzing and testing.

Through this series of experiments related to health, nutrition and nature, Bayer and Inquirer in Education aim to deepen the interest of elementary school pupils in Science.

The materials needed for these experiments are safe and can easily be accessed in your home.

Ready for a race?

FORM groups and have each group choose a hovercraft to pit against the other groups. Place the hovercraft on a long, smooth surface (a table perhaps).

Give each hovercraft a gentle push. The one that hovers the longest wins.

Take a photo of the race.

Answer this question: Does a balloon with a larger volume of air make the hovercraft travel longer than a balloon with a smaller volume of air?

Using the newspaper

THE SPORTS section is among the most read sections of the Inquirer.

Sports is also one of the more distinct sections of the Inquirer because it uses words and phrases that are meant to enable the readers to imagine how a game unfolds.

Write a news story about your class’ hovercraft race. Pretend you’re writing it for the Sports page. Submit a photo to go with your story.

The Science

HERE’S what happens:

When you pop the top open, the air in the balloon is forced downward and out. That air goes beneath the hovercraft and serves as a thin cushion between the CD and the surface of the table.

This layer of air lifts the CD and reduces friction between the CD and the table surface, allowing your hovercraft to glide freely. Friction is the force produced when two objects rub together.

Try pushing a plain CD across the table. How does it move? Now try pushing your hovercraft on the same surface. Is there a difference in the way they move?

Based on this idea, a real hovercraft uses propellers to create a big cushion of air so that it can move across flat ground and even across water, making it an amphibious vehicle. This is also why large hoverboards are called Air Cushion Vehicles (ACV).