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For the Juniors: Super-fast jet boats

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Two people sit in speed boat wearing helmets
For the Juniors: Super-fast jet boats

SUBJECTS:  Technologies

YEARS:  3–4


Jet boats can go really fast.

Instead of an outboard motor and propeller, jet boats have an inboard engine and they eject a jet of water out the rear of the boat. Watch this clip to see how they work.


Things to think about

  1. 1.Have you seen a boat moved by two oars (long wooden paddles)? How do the oars work? How does a motor boat work?
  2. 2.Watch the jet boat speed around the course. What two things help it move really fast? What does a boat engine need to make it work? How does this motor use water to move the boat forward?
  3. 3.Draw a picture of a jet boat with its inboard engine. Show how it pumps up water and squirts it out the rear of the boat to make it move forward. Draw a design of your own jet boat using a 1L milk carton as the hull (boat's body) and a balloon as the power source. Explain how it will work.
  4. 4.Make a boat using a wax-coated 1L milk carton cut in half lengthwise. (Get an adult to help you cut the carton.) Mount a balloon on your boat hull as the energy source. Blow up the balloon and do a test to see how it works. Make any changes needed to improve your boat's performance. How far can you make it go?


Acknowledgements

Music by Glyn Lehmann.



Date of broadcast: 7 May 2001


Copyright

Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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