An 11-foot tall water slide will be a cool addition to the community pool...once there's a pump to deliver the water. See which invention makes the biggest splash with YMCA campers.
- 1) The Challenge (3:37)
Watch the Show
Bonus Footage
Blue Team's Process
Red Team's Process
- 1) The Challenge (3:37)
- 2) Brainstorm (4:20)
- 3) Design and Build (12:45)
- 4) Test (2:25)
- 5) Judging (4:11)
- 1) What Joey Learned (00:28)
- 2) What Natasha Learned (00:33)
- 3) Meet the Nurse (00:47)
- How do you build a human-powered pump for a water slide? Blue Team decided to use a piston system to power the water up through a hose to the top of the slide.
- They built a teeter totter-like frame to pump the water. By going up and down on the teeter-totter they built up pressure in the pistons, which pushed the water up the hose.
- Blue Team's design used two sealed pistons that worked together, but not at the same time. The pistons built up enough pressure to suck and push the water through a hose to the top of the slide.
- The teeter-totter design was very simple and used their weight, rather than muscle power, to do the pumping. It was a very simple design that didn't require any major last minute fixes.
- The seat could have been more comfortable but the system worked very well, pumping a generous stream of water down the slide. Blue Team won the challenge and the pump was installed at a YMCA pool.
- How do you build a human-powered pump for a water slide? Red Team built a loop of sponges going up to the top of the slide, with a roller at the top to squeeze the water out.
- They tested their idea on a model waterslide, using a shorter length of sponges, and it worked.
- Noah built the rollers and the frame for the top of the slide while the others sewed a long belt of sponges out of nylon fabric.
- The string of absorbent sponges picked up water from the pool and were pulled to the top of the slide. How did they get the water out of the sponges? Watch and find out.
- Just before judging, the loop of sponges got tangled, so at the last minute Red Team built a guide out of wood to keep the two strands of the loop separate.
- The sponge design worked but it didn't deliver as much water as the Blue Team and the clients found it tiring to operate the machine.
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