Flipping Beermats

Summary

Presentation by students from George Stephenson High School, Newcastle
Presentation by students from Roundhay School Technology College, Leeds

Last year, Ian Johnston was asked to design a beermat which had an optimal aerodynamic performance. Why does a beermat need an optimal aerodynamic performance, you ask? So that when you flip it, you can catch it before it lands, of course.

News report on Ian Johnston's original research.

In this conference, students will find out from Ian how he went about creating such a beermat, and will have the opportunity to design a mat of their own. This will involve students in practical work and mathematical modelling.

If you would like to contact Ian, whether to ask a question or to report on something you have discovered, you can email him at i.johnston@open.ac.uk.

Participating schools

Link to spreadsheet for calculating moments of inertia

Project work

• Preliminary task. To be done in preparation for the first VC on 25 January.
• What makes a 'catchable' beermat?. Follow-up project work

Additional material

• Smash, Grab and Touchdown: A Measure of Flippancy. Paper on flipping beermats by Ian Johnston, The Open University, and Hazel Lucas, University of Oxford - contains theoretical ideas, plus an analysis of different shapes of beermat