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Pop quiz.
Two teams of four kids have two
days to design a project for one
client.
Who will be the winner?
We might need to start over.
Stay tuned to find out...
Yeah!
...on Design Squad.
Major funding for Design Squad is provided by the
National Science Foundation,
where discoveries begin, and
by...
Intel proudly supports PBS
Kids because thrilling leaps of
innovation often begin with a
small stretch of the
imagination.
Additional funding is
provided by Tyco Electronics,
the National Council of
Examiners for Engineering and
Surveying, the Harold and Esther
Edgerton Family Foundation, the
American Society of Civil
Engineers, and the IEEE.
We've got two days
to get this straight
Got a challenge
just won't wait
our eyes are on the prize
Two engineers
just set the date
Got this client
can't be late
oh, no, it's go time
Build it, test, fix it
debug now and kick it
Got to get it off the ground
yeah
Stick around and you'll see
what teamwork's supposed to mean
It's so key
Design Squad
Design Squad...
Welcome to your first day of
Design Squad, everyone.
Over the next 13 weeks,
you're going to be building
projects that are crazy, fun,
interesting, useful, and
challenging, just like real
engineers.
We have the Blue Team.
Oh, and we have the Red Team.
But don't get too cozy, because
we're going to shuffle you up
every week.
All right, so at the end of
every challenge, the team that
gets closest to nailing it is
going to get 100 points per
member-- the team that loses,
zero, zilch, nada, nothing.
Then, at the end of the 13
weeks, the engineer in traing
with the most points overall
wins the grand prize, which is--
drum roll please-- a college
scholarship from the Intel
Foundation.
Yes!
Well, right here is where all
the action's going to happen,
from brainstorming to debugging.
So turn around, take a look at
your workspaces.
You guys each have identical
work spaces.
Now, the Red Team's on the left,
Blue Team on the right.
You have hand tools, power
tools, electrical equipment, and
just about everything you need.
Finally, out here in the big
machine shop are the larger
tools, and you both have access
to those.
All right, well, you guys ready for your first challenge?
All right, all right.
This week, we're going to get a
little face time with our first
client.
His name is Dan Page, and he's
from Hampstead, New Hampshire.
Dan feels the need...
...the need for speed.
Whoa.
Hey, Design Squads, I'm Dan
Page.
I build dragsters from scratch.
I've been building and racing
cars since I was 16 years old.
I now have over 100 cars on the
racing circuit, and I've got
some serious hardware to show
for it.
Dragsters are the fastest
accelerating vehicle driven by
man, and that includes the Space
Shuttle.
Dragsters can reach speeds over
330 miles an hour and cover the
quarter mile in less than five
seconds.
Now for today's Design Squad
challenge.
I want you to build me the
fastest dragster possible.
Here are the specs.
Both teams have two days to
modify an existing car into a
dragster.
We'll supply the cars and the
engines; you supply the
engineering know-how.
Both dragsters will face off in
a head-to-head showdown at the
New England Dragway.
The fastest car wins the
challenge and some serious
hardware.
But here's the catch.
Nate, Deanne.
Ha, ha, that's right.
You guys have to take these
little, wimpy, non-powered kid
toys and turn them into the
fastest, most insane dragsters
possible.
I know, and I know both teams
are wondering which one of these
do I get.
So to figure it out, we're going
to do a coin toss.
Blue Team, call it.
Tails.
Tails it is.
There we go. All right.
Blue Team, let's huddle up,
figure out which one of these
bad boys you want.
Okay, guys, come one.
All right, so what are we going to talk about?
I think it'll be easier to
put a motor on the bottom or the
top of the wagon, because
there's really no place that you
can mount anything on the trike.
The wheels on the wagon, it's
durable.
Bigger than the trike.
The wagon?
The wagon.
All right, Nate, Dan.
We've made our decision.
And it is?
We'll take the wagon.
Red Team, sounds like you guys have the trike.
Oh, we want the trike.
We want the trike.
Bring it, bring it.
Three wheels versus four
wheels.
See you on the racetrack.
So here we go. You guys ready? Yeah.
Let's get out there.
Get your vehicles and get some
brainstorming going.
All right. All right, Blue Team.
One more thing.
You'll find the motors that we
want you to use on your work tables. Good luck.
Oh, my god.
What?
We're supposed to move a car with this?
I thought we were getting combustible engines.
That caught me off guard.
Brainstorming time, guys.
Let's go.
Brainstorming, guys.
Let's go.
All right, so our goal is to
drag race.
Drag racing automobile.
We're going to have to use
some type of gear system,
because I don't think that the
drill's going to be able to make
the car move as fast as we want
it to.
Right, so some kind of gear
train. And we also want preferably
less weight in the car.
You know what?
I'll drive.
I'll drive.
It's okay.
I think we should go take a look
at our drills.
We should figure out what
settings... what the settings
mean. All right.
The sound means it's going
faster.
Which one's going faster?
The more high pitched one.
We have to find a way to
attach the drills to the axle on
the on the wheel.
What part of the drill is
going to be attached? But wait. Hold on a second. We don't need to connect it to
the axle because look, the
wheels are free spinning.
They're not connected to the
axle.
We have to connect it to the
wheel. Because look, when that wheel
spins... How are we going to attach it to the wheel? That's what we have to figure out. Do you want to dismantle it right now?
No, I think we need to
brainstorm completely first
before we start taking apart the
materials that they gave us.
I like ripping things with my
bare hands.
I would say the simplest thing
to do would be to have it
powered from the rear after we
remove these crummy tires.
Well, we got a simple bolt
that's in there.
We could fit it right into there. If you have it on here, it's
going to be like this.
Hey, guys.
How's it going, Red Team?
Oh, my goodness.
Well, we've learned how to
disassemble things.
Yep.
Have you guys thought about
acceleration at all?
Are we allowed to push the
car physically at the beginning
of the race?
Well, do dragsters use push
starts?
Do people push the dragsters?
Yeah, dragsters aren't made
out of tricycles, so...
This one's made out of
tricycle.
No push. You guys have to be completely
powered off the drills.
Did they get it to work?
Yeah.
Oh, my gosh.
We got it to work!
It doesn't stop though.
Brakes!
It's slowing down.
Nice, good job, you guys.
Red Team's idea is a direct
drive.
That means the drill is directly
connected to the wheel.
So the wheel turns one time for
every turn of the drill.
But here's the catch.
The trike's wheels can't spin
any faster than the drill's top
speed.
Guys, guys, guys, guys, guys,
another thing that I noticed is
you've just been hacking at
stuff, taking things apart,
which is a good way to get
started, maybe get a couple
ideas flowing, but I really want
to see some stuff on paper.
We just wanted to jump right
in and start taking apart the
tricycle, like, immediately.
We didn't want to, like, plan it
out. So we had to take a step back
and kind of plan it out a little
better.
You want to, like, draw down
what we're planning to do first?
Yeah.
Yeah, let's draw.
We got our main wheels.
All right, so we got our
forks up in front.
We can have the drills right
around here, right down on the
main axle in line with it.
Our motor's somewhere in here
with our gears.
Can you guys give us the
rundown on your design?
We decided that the drill
probably wouldn't have enough
power to make it go at all if
with any speed.
Interesting. How'd your decide that?
Um, we kind of just assumed.
Did you do any tests at all,
or did you just, like, look at
them and think, "Those drills
aren't powerful enough"?
We assumed.
Oh.
So how are you going to get
that acceleration?
I rember learning that if
you have a spool, and there's a
wire around the spool, and the
spool's constantly getting
bigger, it's going to be pulling
more, so the car's always going
to be accelerating.
So we somehow apply that concept
to a cart.
We'll be able to keep the car
constantly accelerating.
That's great. I think your onto the right
track. I mean, definitely you have
three different speeds here, but
there are ways to achieve that
without just relying on the
drills.
Right.
I think that's a good thing
to brainstorm-- are ways that
you're going to get acceleration
in general. That's going really fast.
That wheel. Are you sure you won't be the
driver? No, I just said-- you didn't
hear me-- I said I take back my
comment. I will volunteer to drive
this crazy... He's driving. I volunteer to do it too.
Fine, we'll rock, paper,
scissors for it.
Okay, that's one way to go,
but Red Team would be better off
if they considered their power-
to-weight ratio.
The drills' limited power can't
accelerate a heavy load, but a
lighter load will accelerate
faster down the track.
So if Red Team wants the edge,
they should choose the lightest
person to drive, and that's
Natasha.
Maybe I should go ride it
around the Blue Team and
intimidate them.
Wait a second.
Has to have more force on the
front wheel.
If this works, then I'm driving.
As soon as I started shifting
my weight up to the front of the
car, it started going.
Let's try it with Mike
standing forward like this.
It's working a lot better now.
We're going to use the gear
changing inside the actual
drill.
How are we going to switch it though?
He's going to physically
switch it, we think, for now,
maybe-- no?
Where's the drill going to be? Like, is there going to be one here and one here? The easiest thing to do would
be to mount it like this...
And then drill a hole right there. ...cut a hole right here so
I can just put my finger
through.
But what about the other one?
Look at the way the motor's
spinning.
I know. That's the problem with that.
But if we do it like this...
That's clever.
So we need a way to make this
tire spin with this motor in
this position.
Each motor would be attached
to this little space right here.
Oh, to the wheel, okay.
Yep.
How, gear?
I guess we can just do a
chain that goes around.
That's be really easy, to
just... if, like... well, let's
say we move this down here.
Yeah.
...to have this spinning...
And a chain just going...
...and a chain going from
here to here. We can put... I'd rather not do a chain.
I'm a little aggravated
because we're getting nowhere.
Everything we try is just not
working.
We need to think outside the box.
We might need to start over,
head back to the drawing board.
We need to pick one.
We need to get something done.
All right, instead of
thinking about all these axles,
I'm seeing the drills coming
straight out of the body...
Okay.
...and I just press the
buttons, and they're connected
directly to the wheels.
So have it on direct drive,
then, for powering?
Okay.
I guess so.
Keep it simple, stupid.
These will have to somehow be
out here...
Yeah. ...I guess spinning these wheels, like this.
Yeah.
And they can be some type of
structure that comes out that's
stable enough to hold the drill.
Can we name the wagon right
now? Can we just do that?
Let's call it the Blue...
the Blue Boomer.
The Blue Boomer.
Right there, we're on the same
level.
Um, I'm worried about the
time just a little bit.
It'd be great if we can actually
test our design today.
What time is it?
Anybody?
Time to rock and roll!
I have no idea.
This is the mechanism we
want.
This is the trigger for the
drill.
We want to take the switch
out to remove the whole hassle
of trying to figure out a way to
push the trigger in, and we can
just have the whole switch and
then extend the wires and put it
onto the handlebar.
So this will allow us to move
this trigger up to the handle so
that we don't have to bend over
and pretty much put our face
into the tire to try to get it
to work.
We're going to need to run
the wires out.
Yeah, so this is on top.
This is top.
You get bottom.
Oh, it's working.
Yep, I got it.
Yes, all right.
This is the greatest feeling
ever.
Yes, we have movement.
Put down your power tools.
That's it for day one.
Yeah!
All right, put it down, you guys. Clean it up.
All right, what do we got to do?
We got to get this clutch
to...
Uh-oh.
Hey, guys.
Blue Team, day two.
So our first to-do is the
mounting of the drills.
The drills are going to be
attached like this.
I have a question.
Have you guys even sat on it yet?
When I used to build go-carts,
the first thing I did was sit on
it, imagine myself flying down
the road.
I stood on it.
If we pushed you right now,
how would you steer?
I wouldn't.
With our body.
Wait.
Let's see what he does.
What are you going to do? What are you going to do? What are you going to do?
Whoa.
Go.
Oh, the axle from the wheel.
I like it.
Can you do that?
Eureka.
So instead of dancing, what are you going to do with your hands then?
Vroom.
Nice.
When we first talked about
acceleration, you guys came up
with some interesting ideas, you
in particular.
Did I really?
Oh, no.
Your cable, your spooled
cable idea.
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Noah's spool idea is a
continuously variable
transmission or CVT.
Here's how it works.
One spool wound with cable is
attached to the wheel's axle.
A take-up spool is attached to
the drill.
With each turn of the drill, the
spool takes up more cable and
grows in diameter while the
wheel spool that's feeding cable
shrinks in diameter and must
turn faster to keep up.
That spins the wheel, and the
wagon accelerates.
Towards the end of the race,
Blue Team may have the speed
advantage because the CVT can
spin the wheels faster than the
Red Team's direct drive.
All right, so we're going
with the spool.
This represents our wheel,
and the drill will represent the
motor.
As the motor pulls the string
in, our wheel will begin to
turn, as it is now.
Keep going.
Just fix it underneath.
So if you look at this huge
mess down here, the string's not
going to unwind because the
string is too soft.
So when you put tension to it,
it just sinks in rather than
unraveling.
All right, I'm going to start
cutting this off.
So right now we need
something that's a lot harder,
which is right now steel cable,
and we'll see how that works.
I'm a little worried about how
it's going to... how tight it's
going to wide around, because it
is stiffer than the string.
But we're only going to find
that out by testing.
You guys look like you're
about ready for a test.
Yeah.
Look at that thing go.
The battery's on.
I'm going to go get the Blue
Team.
Hey, guys, Red Team is ready
to test.
You guys want to come check it out?
No. Maybe.
Maybe.
It's going to be the coolest-
looking stationary tricycle ever.
Stick and stones, Tom, sticks
and stones.
That's what you're going to be landing on when that thing
explodes.
Oh.
You're just jealous.
One for the Blue Team.
You talk the talk, but you
know, we're testing first, so...
We can talk the talk, but
you're going to be walking the
walk when that doesn't work.
Ooh.
Ooh.
I feel like the Red Team's
going to fail horribly right
now, and it's going to feel
wonderful.
Yeah, Natasha. You got this, girl.
Natasha, are you ready?
Ready!
Hey, you guys, what's going on?
Hey!
Oh, my goodness.
Someone's on the track.
Come on down, Dan.
Hi, Dan.
What do you think of what
they've built so far?
Looks pretty crazy.
So what do we have here?
We pretty much have a really
chopped up tricycle.
We used this motor and attached
it to the front wheel to make
this front-wheel drag machine.
We also changed out the wheels
in the back for better traction.
So where's the seat?
There is no sitting.
Let's give it a test drive.
On your mark, get set...
Golf clap, golf clap, golf
clap.
You'll have to work in the
acceleration a little bit.
I think they have to just work on the whole moving part as
a whole.
So where's your car?
You can't rush perfection,
Dan. It's getting there.
I noticed you were kind of
picking on their car a little
bit, but I don't see your car
out here. Oh, don't worry. Our car will move.
Make sure you guys bring your
wrench set to the real race.
You might need it.
Make sure you bring a working
car next time.
You'll need it.
Oh.
Yeah, because yours worked perfectly.
At least we have something.
I hope ours works as well as yours. We have something.
It was not fun.
It was disappointing and tiring.
It was very embarrassing.
It just gave the Blue Team an
ego boost that was highly
unnecessary.
All right, something is
definitely loose in there.
The chuck's spinning, but
it's not, like, engaging.
The chuck stays on there fine,
but the motor isn't spinning the
chuck to spin the axle because
the chuck's loosening.
Are they both spinning though?
No.
That one's not spinning?
Basically, what we did was we
clamped it down with this hose
clamp just tight enough so that
it would stay in there and make
sure it wouldn't move.
Let's go for a test, you
guys. All right. You ready?
The weight difference between
you and I is about 20-something
odd pounds.
I can't believe you're going
to steal that from me.
I called it first.
And?
And? I'm a lot lighter. We have it on camera. I was born...
I guess it would be more
effective for Krishana to drive
the car. Fine, all right. You know what? Drive. I don't even care. I don't even want to drive
anymore.
I'm just going to check my
e-mail.
I've seen Krishana drive.
Are you talking trash?
Break it up, you two.
Do I have to strangle him?
We need to work together as a team. Do I have to?
I'm taking Natasha down.
I don't know about him.
I think the guys kind of
undermine us because we're
females.
They're always like, "Go in the kitchen." Like, what?
What are you talking about?
We're engineers.
Dude, listen.
Giselle and I take it well.
That's the whole point of
working in a group, is working together and throwing out as
many ideas as you can, and
sometimes it just doesn't go
through.
Ah, it worked!
Whoa!
All right!
It worked! It worked!
That is the output of our
hard work, and that is the
meaning of teamwork.
We wound both, obviously.
we secured both drills with this
metal bar.
We put this bar here to stop
them from wobbling.
Now it's, you know, solid as a
rock.
We're ready to test. Testing phase. We're definitely ready to
test.
We're not going to stoop to
their level and heckle them. No, no, no, no, but...
Oh, my gosh.
And it looks like it's really hard to wind that cable on there
because it's so darn stiff,
right? You have a pretty small radius,
and the cable doesn't want to bend that much.
Look over here for a second.
That's the second time it did
that.
The cable got wound up on the
end so much that it ripped the
pipe out of the wood.
Wow, that's impressive.
So when we get into the pit,
what kind of repairs are we
going to make? We're going to put that axle back on. We're going to either wind the
cable tighter or find something
that winds tighter than the
cable will, something that's
less stiff.
I love our car, and we're
still going to beat the Red
Team, because we're so much
cooler.
Put it in, blue. Put it in, blue.
Blue Boomer!
It was just like our car.
Yeah, sounds just like it.
Before we had metal wiring,
and then that wasn't really
stable enough, so we changed it
to climbing rope.
So you're going to just spool
it perfectly so that it's not
going to be able to coast past.
That's the idea.
Top flight races to staging
lanes for round one.
Again, top flight to the lanes
for round one.
All right, this is it.
What's our strategy?
You don't want to have an itchy trigger finger and, you
know, jump off the line too
quick.
Boomer, Boomer.
The Blue Boomer is not a late
bloomer.
Get ahead early, stay ahead.
Red Baron!
Blue Boomer!
I'm anxious and nervous.
I'm excited.
I'm every emotion you could
possibly imagine.
Yeah!
The blue one looks good too, man.
Look at that gear drive.
And it changes ratio as it gets
down near the end.
That's pretty good.
Yeah, we got a full house
today.
Okay, ladies and gentlemen, a
special event happening here at
New England Dragway, night of
thrills, where we are featuring
a very special event here on the
eighth mile, two very unique
dragsters from Design Squad.
These guys have built some very
unique...
...New England Dragway welcome
to the Red Baron and the Blue
Boomer.
They look so small compared
to the racers that were just on.
Is this some kind of joke?
What is this?
Yeah, the audience is like,
"What is going on?"
Yeah, they're not saying a thing.
So we are getting ready to go.
There it goes.
Look at the Red Baron head on
down ahead of the Blue Boomer as
they are approaching the halfway
mark.
I think the Blue Boomer is
catching up.
This could be very tight down
there at the finish.
Ah, Blue Boomer...
I am pumped! I can't believe that worked as well as it did. Yeah, I know. It was awesome. Oh, my gosh, that was so
great.
Oh, you looked wonderful out there.
I felt myself accelerating,
and I was going to burn Natasha
to death, and then it got
tangled.
I got so nervous once... I
was kind of up ahead, and then
Krishana just kept coming and
coming, and then I was like, "No
matter what happens, I'm not
giving up,"and I put all my
weight to the front, and she
just ended up breaking down, and
I just went for it.
It was awesome.
And a big round of applause
for the winning driver down
there in the Design Team
Challenge.
Give her a hand, the Red Baron.
Thank you.
Very successful here at New
England Dragway.
Hopefully there'll be a rematch
sometime in the future.
Both the teams did a great job.
You guys took off quicker.
You had a pretty good acceleration early on.
And it sure looked like you were catching up there. It's too bad it broke.
It was going to be close.
The winner of the first annual
Design Squad trophy is the Red
Team.
Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org
So Joey, Mike, Kim, and
Natasha have each racked up 100
points, and the Blue Team came
up empty.
But the lead is still up for
grabs when the teams get
reshuffled next time on Design
Squad.
All right, Deanne, here's a new
challenge: describe the Design Squad Web site in ten seconds.
Go.
There are games, photos, new
challenges, how to build a
dragster, car design features,
videos, quizzes, scoring
updates.
Time's up.
Ugh!
Just go to pbskidsgo.org.
Major funding for Design Squad is provided by the
National Science Foundation,
where discoveries begin,
and by...
Intel proudly supports PBS
Kids, investing in the young
minds of today, inspiring the
scientists and engineers of
tomorrow.
Additional funding is
provided by Tyco Electronics,
the National Council of
Examiners for Engineering and
Surveying, the Harold and Esther
Edgerton Family Foundation, the
American Society of Civil
Engineers, and the IEEE.