Boat

[emmaemmaemma]

My little 5 year old sister has to make a boat out of tin foil to carry 15 coins in it successfully , without sinking for her homework. What shape boat should she make and how should she go about doing it? Any suggestions? Emma

[almcd007]

I'd get a deep bowl - such as a pyrex pudding basin type bowl, build up layers of tin foil around it and press is as hard as you can against the bowl, keep doing this until you have quite a few layers. Take the pudding basin out of the foil and this should create a bowl of foil ! Your coins should fit in fine and float like a good'un ! It's all about water displacement - ensuring it will float. An even, balanced shape which also goes beneath the surface of the water (to create displacment) will do the trick the wider it is the more foil you might need to create a rigid structure.

Good Luck

[emmaemmaemma]

Thanks very much - a great help! Here we go....!

[Toureman]

The easy way to do it is get the biggest square of foil you can then just loosely roll each edge and corners of the foil over towards the middle. the rolled edges will form a waterproof belt like a rubber dinghy.

[funkymoped]

ide try to get away using a foil tray, the sort you get take away meals in.
if that isnt allowed, use decent foil folded and rolled on the edges.
if it needs to be powered, a piece of soap attached to the back creates forward motion when its placed on water.
dont know how it works but ive seen it done !
:-)