Wind Tunnel Discovery

B sat down at the table and looked at all of the different loose materials. He grabbed two of the tree cookies and propped them up. B began using his mouth to try and blow them over. 

"It's not working. They are hard to move."

He looked around and noticed a fan in the corner of the room. 

"Hey, we can use this fan!"

He pointed the small fan towards the tree cookies. Nothing happened. 

"They still aren't moving. Maybe I should get it closer."

B put the fan an inch or two away from the cookie. It swiveled. 

"It moved! I made it move with the fan! Maybe it needs to stand up like this so it can roll."

He pointed the fan directly at the curved edge of the tree cookie. It didn't roll. 

"Maybe like I can keep pointing it here and it spins like this."

E noticed how B was using the fan to blow different materials around and asked for a turn. He picked up the pinwheel and pointed the fan at it. E watched in amazement as the pinwheel spun faster and faster. His eyes lit up with excitement. 

"It's spinning! It's going fast."

E pointed the fan towards the table and watched at the pinwheel came to a stop. He pointed the fan back at the blades of the pinwheel and started laughing. He put the pinwheel down and grabbed a tree cookie. 

Like B, He first pointed it at the curved edge of the tree cookie. 

"It not moving."

"You should hold it closer!"

E held it closer to the tree cookie and watched as it wobbled back and forth. E was not getting the results he was hoping for. B stepped in and asked for a turn and once again tried to make the tree cookie move across the table. 

"I think we need more fans! Can we go look for some?"

More fans? Where would we find more fans? 

We started out on our journey to look for more fans. It didn't take long before E excitedly yelled, "There's one!" and pointed into the collaboratory. 

The boys went straight to the wind tunnel, plugged it in and listened as the motor of the fan started up. Each of them picked different scarves and started loading them into the tunnel. 

The boys took turns feeding the cloth into the wind tunnel and watching it float to the ground. They would erupt in giggles and then try again. 

E and B then plugged in the second wind tunnel. This tunnel, however, is pointed straight up rather than angled out. 

"It goes up and out!"

"It's going really slow."

They watched as the scarves kind of hung in the air and made their way slowly out of the top. 

"It went all the way up in the air!"
"I can catch it with my head."

"We can also try to get it in the basket!"

The three boys became frustrated with how slowly the scarves were coming out of the wind tunnel. 

"The rainbow ones don't really work. I think we have to try something different."

B looked around and spotted the white pieces of material. 

"Oh we can try these ones!"

The white ones worked! Why did the white scarves work and the rainbow ones didn't?

The rest of the Pine friends made their way down to the collaboratory and gave the wind tunnels a shot. 

Looking forward to seeing what else we can make move now that they have discovered using fans rather than straws. We left the day wondering:

what else can fly? Are animals the only things that can fly?