While the guys continue to toggle with the code, Anita and I decided to go water rafting. After having written corresponding emails to and fro to the SRC for permission to use the pool, we finally made our way down. It was a long and arduous journey, transporting the bulky boat onto the blue bus under staring eyes and confused bus drivers, getting off at hall 6 and trekking the rest of the way in samsui women fashion to the wadding pool.
It was a little hard to get any proper documentation of the scene that unfolded as Anita held the boat over her head and I held 2 massive 4inch PVC pipes, but if anything when the box fell apart after our experiment, here’s Anita in the raft.
Skeptical that the box would even float with 2 PVC pipes on each side, we tested the empty box, and it floated magnificently.
Then after sourcing for some sort of weights, we found bricks and placed them inside, and it still floated, although it was also beginning to sink with the addition of the second brick.
But upon adding the reinforcing 4inch pipes, the boat was more than capable of handling 2 bricks, with a good 7cm of buoyancy measured from box bottom to the surface of the water.
The problem was, now we had to figure out how heavy the bricks were. Since neither of us ‘gymmed’, the bricks felt like a good 10kg — but turns out, it was only 5.3kg. Oops. [We walked over to the wave, and found a weighing machine. After discovering such a precious find, we transported both bricks — yes a grand total of 10.6kg — to the wave, to and fro. Thankfully we went to the back and found a trolley that the uncle graciously lent us.]
Needless to say, we were exhausted by the end of the field trip. And so was the cable tires holding our boat together, because just before we boarded the bus again the box fell apart from our raft structure. Anita called the boys down, and we reunited at the bus stop.