4 college students decided to use a surfboard as a class project. They wanted to measure the velocity of water running under a board as someone surfed on it. They could then use this to tell what flexibility would optimize a surf board. However, they had to gather data from an actual surf board in order to do this. The students decided to build a surf board that could measure the velocity of the water as one of the students actually rode on it. They took a surf board and carved small grooves into it. They then embedded a computer into the front of the board. They then ran wires down the grooves in the board to small sensors placed in the underside of the board. The computer would then control the sensors. Any data that was collected would be saved to a DS card in the computer and then transmitted to a computer on land. The sensors themselves collected data by measuring how far small bands were pushed back by the force of the water. The project was actually very time consuming, but it helped to develop a deeper understanding of a field of study known as fluid-structure interactions
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I believe that this project was very effective. It will not only help companies to develop an effective surf board, but will also help develop concepts in fluid-structure interactions. They are the first people to actually measure the bend of the surfboard in the water. They also hope to use this information to tell what other factors such as experience or the type of wave have an effect on the bend. However, it would have been better if they had tested the board in different places to get more general and applicable data.
Surfboard computer video
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