Eureka Moment!

Our team has been buckling down to make sure we are right on schedule for the Mid-Grant Technical Review. We've been making GREAT progress on our invention prototype by gathering the materials we need to start our second round of testing. The first round of testing was a complete fail, but not without a few lessons to learn. The use of a bucket to house out foam substance, PVC pipes to carry the compressed air out the opening, and a couple of wooden blocks to stabilize the invention did not work at all. Instead of having the compressed air push the foam out the opening, the air just went into the bucket of foam, and made it bubble. Nothing happened. One of our team members pointed out the physics flaw prior to testing, so it was expected. Knowing this, our team knew we needed a new plan. Mr. Bob, a helper for the CGUHS robotics team, donated an empty air compressor tank, which he suggested would be filled with the foam. Inspired by this new object, a few members of the team and I brainstormed a few designs that we believed we could work. We came up with a new idea to try.

 Mr. Bob, who has been giving us feedback about our invention, donated all the plumbing parts we needed to start building our new prototype. The materials he gave to our cause had cut our planning and building time in half! I know our team is extremely grateful for his contribution. On Saturday, everyone on the team worked hard to make it a very productive day. We gathered the materials and put everything in its place securely with Teflon tape. The Technical and Sustainability lead performed further research to help us perfect our power source, and the Administration and second Sustainability lead were experimenting with making foam from Dawn dish soap. Their successful product was very amusing to play with! However, the dish soap only acts as a subsitute for the Class A foam on its way to us from New Jeresy. All we had to do now, was test our new game plan. At first, our technical lead, sustainability lead and I decided to test our prototype with water. The result was the production of a nice refreshing mist. It was beautiful. The only problem was that water was leaking out the air compressor due to loosely tightened attachments, and the water mist was too thin for our liking. As a solution, we tightened the fittings more securely, and replaced the sprinkler head with a water hose sprayer.

Finally, we put all the pieces together. The dish foam was placed in the tank. The water hose sprayer was connected to one side of the T nozzle, and the air compressor was hooked on the other. This was the moment of truth. The air compressor nozzle was opened, and then, the water nozzle. At first nothing but air exited the water hose sprayer. Have we failed? Then the sustainablility lead completely opened the water nozzle so more water could come out. Soon after, foam was successfully spraying out of the tank. EUREKA!!