Introduction to Pykrete..A super material for Pakistan's Northern areas?
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Safriz
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Try making your own Pykrete with different materials..
You need
An long narrow box (we used an empty cling film box, but feel free to experiment)
Water
Your special 'pykrete' material
A set of bathroom scales
What you do
Choose your material
Jem Stansfield using cotton wool in his pykrete.
Our entries were cotton wool and grass. If you want to use these options and try and make a pykrete stronger than Jem's, go ahead. (Word of warning, Jem might expect a full mathematical explanation justifying your stronger pykrete... but don't worry, if you've made stronger pykrete then we're sure you can handle it.
Preparing a cotton wool pykrete bar
Use a small cling film box as a test mould.
Take a few empty narrow boxes. We used a small cling-film box (roughly 30cm in length).
Fill as much, or as little, of the boxes (your choice) with your chosen material.
You might want to make some bars of plain ice, to have something with which to compare the strength of your pykrete.
It is advisable to keep the ratio of material-to-water the same for all of your test bars, so you have clear results at the end of one round of testing. You can always change the ratio for round two.
Take your moulds over to your freezer. Place it down and then fill it with, once again, as much, or as little water as you see fit. This is your finding, your discovery and your pykrete. So go with your instinct.
A bar of cotton wool pykrete
Frozen bars of cotton wool pykrete.
Leave your bars in the freezer for at least 12 hours or until they are completely frozen.
Ready. Set. Pykrete.
The Impact test
Take one bar outside.
Hold it high in the air and- throw!
If it breaks straight away then you can be pretty sure that you don't want to set sail in it. However, if it doesn't break, pick it up and throw it again, this time with a little more force. Relish the moment - there aren't many times in life when your exact objective is to break something.
If your bar of pykrete still doesn't break, then you might be onto a winner. See how many throws it takes to snap ithe bar, and let us know the results.
The Strength test
Take two large books and place them on the ground, leaving enough space to fit your foot between them.
Set the bathroom scales behind the books.
Place your pykrete bar horizontally across the books.
Stand on the scales and wait for the dial to stabilise.
Set of bathroom scales
The aim is to transfer your weight from the scales to the bar.
Now, place one foot gently onto the pykrete. You can monitor how much weight you are transferring to the pykrete by seeing how much your weight decreases by on the scales. This is weight loss at its fastest!
Keeping one eye on the scales, slowly increase the weight you place on your pykrete bar. Do this until it breaks.
Jem's foot rests on a bar of cotton wool pykrete
How much weight can your pykrete take?.
If it didn't break under your weight, find someone heavier and see how they do. This could be one for the whole family (not at the same time, of course). What weight could it hold? Let us know.
What should happen
Hopefully, your pykrete bars will be far stronger than your bars of plain ice. How much impact they take and the degree of their strength is something no one knows. So once you have the results, share them with us.
If it doesn't work for you
If your pykrete is as weak as, well, as ice, then it might be due to a few things. The first is that the material you have chosen just isn't right. See below for some tips on things you can try. Or it might be because of your ratio of material to water. If you feel it's worth trying again then have another go and change the ratio around eg try using more water and less material in your mould.
The challenge
Jem Stansfield
Are you ready for the Jem Pykrete challenge?
As Jem mentioned in his video (above) there is no set recipe for pykrete. The world of pykrete is still an unmapped territory. So, if you're up for the challenge - have a go and help us map it! Use Jem's strength and impact tests above and if your results seem truly ground-breaking (or at least, pykrete breaking), then email us your result
You need
An long narrow box (we used an empty cling film box, but feel free to experiment)
Water
Your special 'pykrete' material
A set of bathroom scales
What you do
Choose your material
Jem Stansfield using cotton wool in his pykrete.
Our entries were cotton wool and grass. If you want to use these options and try and make a pykrete stronger than Jem's, go ahead. (Word of warning, Jem might expect a full mathematical explanation justifying your stronger pykrete... but don't worry, if you've made stronger pykrete then we're sure you can handle it.
Preparing a cotton wool pykrete bar
Use a small cling film box as a test mould.
Take a few empty narrow boxes. We used a small cling-film box (roughly 30cm in length).
Fill as much, or as little, of the boxes (your choice) with your chosen material.
You might want to make some bars of plain ice, to have something with which to compare the strength of your pykrete.
It is advisable to keep the ratio of material-to-water the same for all of your test bars, so you have clear results at the end of one round of testing. You can always change the ratio for round two.
Take your moulds over to your freezer. Place it down and then fill it with, once again, as much, or as little water as you see fit. This is your finding, your discovery and your pykrete. So go with your instinct.
A bar of cotton wool pykrete
Frozen bars of cotton wool pykrete.
Leave your bars in the freezer for at least 12 hours or until they are completely frozen.
Ready. Set. Pykrete.
The Impact test
Take one bar outside.
Hold it high in the air and- throw!
If it breaks straight away then you can be pretty sure that you don't want to set sail in it. However, if it doesn't break, pick it up and throw it again, this time with a little more force. Relish the moment - there aren't many times in life when your exact objective is to break something.
If your bar of pykrete still doesn't break, then you might be onto a winner. See how many throws it takes to snap ithe bar, and let us know the results.
The Strength test
Take two large books and place them on the ground, leaving enough space to fit your foot between them.
Set the bathroom scales behind the books.
Place your pykrete bar horizontally across the books.
Stand on the scales and wait for the dial to stabilise.
Set of bathroom scales
The aim is to transfer your weight from the scales to the bar.
Now, place one foot gently onto the pykrete. You can monitor how much weight you are transferring to the pykrete by seeing how much your weight decreases by on the scales. This is weight loss at its fastest!
Keeping one eye on the scales, slowly increase the weight you place on your pykrete bar. Do this until it breaks.
Jem's foot rests on a bar of cotton wool pykrete
How much weight can your pykrete take?.
If it didn't break under your weight, find someone heavier and see how they do. This could be one for the whole family (not at the same time, of course). What weight could it hold? Let us know.
What should happen
Hopefully, your pykrete bars will be far stronger than your bars of plain ice. How much impact they take and the degree of their strength is something no one knows. So once you have the results, share them with us.
If it doesn't work for you
If your pykrete is as weak as, well, as ice, then it might be due to a few things. The first is that the material you have chosen just isn't right. See below for some tips on things you can try. Or it might be because of your ratio of material to water. If you feel it's worth trying again then have another go and change the ratio around eg try using more water and less material in your mould.
The challenge
Jem Stansfield
Are you ready for the Jem Pykrete challenge?
As Jem mentioned in his video (above) there is no set recipe for pykrete. The world of pykrete is still an unmapped territory. So, if you're up for the challenge - have a go and help us map it! Use Jem's strength and impact tests above and if your results seem truly ground-breaking (or at least, pykrete breaking), then email us your result
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