万花筒2008-03-24:纸皮箱划船比赛

（单词翻译）

Students rece cardboard boats at Lindenhurst high school

That this is one of the projects they're most excited about. They are reconstrained to working with certain materials, for example, cardboard. They can’t not use anything, they cannot use styrofoam, they can’t use duct tape and they can’t use regular wrapping tape. They have to use Archimedes' principle, calculate the buoyancy, make sure that the boat can actually float and what they have, er, what that is is, what that deals with is that the amount of weight that goes in the down direction must equal to the weight of the water that the boat is actually displacing.  

We didn’t seal up our boat enough and when I leaned back, the back collapsed¹, so we started taking on water and the whole thing sunk.  

The idea is to see whose boat lasts the longest and whose design holds up in the water without sinking.  

Yeah, we just want, when our boat races, boat's still good, the inside still dry, so we could go again tomorrow for, another round.  

WORDS IN THE NEWS     

1. cardboard : n-uncount 硬纸板、卡纸板

Cardboard is thick, stiff paper that is used, for example, to make boxes and models.  

2. styrofoam : n-uncount  泡沫塑料

Styrofoam is a very light, plastic substance, used especially to make containers. (AM; in BRIT, use polystyrene) 

3. Archimedes' principle: 阿基米德原理

The principle that the net fluid force on a body submerged (or floating) in a stationary² fluid is an upward force equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the body. This concept, perhaps the oldest stated principle in fluid mechanics, was first put forth³ by Archimedes in the third century B.C. 

4. buoyancy : n-uncount 浮力

Buoyancy is the ability that something has to float on a liquid or in the air.