Month:

What’s the Most Symmetrical Solid?

  • September 9

Dr. Glen Whitney, founder of the National Museum of Mathematics in New York and walkSTEM advisor speaks to us from Klyde Warren Park where he notices interesting things about the fun climbing structure in the Children’s playground and also the shape of the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in the distance. He makes connections between his observations and Platonic solids and also answers the question: What’s the Most Symmetrical Solid in the Dallas Arts District? Supplementary Activity Guid... CONTINUE READING

Why is it Called the Flying Pancake?

  • September 9

The Flying Pancake is a fun name for a unique airplane that is no longer in use. We wonder as to why this aircraft was designed to have a flat wing-like body giving it such a large surface area? We explore this unique design and come to understand how this design met its goals but also came at a cost. Supplementary Activity Guides to extend student learning at the Frontiers of Flight Museum for K-12 grade levels are freely available here:... CONTINUE READING

Why is the Apollo VII shaped that way?

  • September 9

The Command Module of the Apollo VII mission has a truncated cone shape which was essential to its goals of leaving the earth's atmosphere and then safely re-entering the atmosphere to bring its crew back to Earth in 1968. Here, we wonder how the shape of the module was an important aspect of its design and learn about cone shapes, air resistance, and surface area. Supplementary Activity Guides to extend student learning at the Frontiers of Flight Museum for K-12 grade levels are freely availabl... CONTINUE READING

What Materials Make Up the Apollo VII?

  • September 9

We notice that the bottom surface of the Command Module of the Apollo VII space mission looks different from the material making up the rest of the module. We learn that this difference is a critical part of the design of the module that brought home the crew of 3 astronauts in 1968. Further, the heat shield material that was developed for the command module’s bottom surface is now something we use in everyday life – great example of innovation that ends up being used far more widely than an... CONTINUE READING