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kottke.org posts about James Dyson

Dozens of Science & Engineering Activities for Kids from The James Dyson Foundation

The James Dyson Foundation has designed a set of 44 challenges related to science & engineering specifically for kids (ages 7 & older), which are perfect for these at-home learning times. The challenges include making an air-powered car out of a balloon, strong bridges out of spaghetti, and a cardboard chair strong enough to hold a person:

Here’s the PDF with all 44 challenges. What I like about these projects is that they’re hands-on, you can do them with stuff you already have around the house, and they’re educational in the best way: there’s no “teaching” really…the challenges are designed to appeal to the natural curiosity of kids.

Reading through these, the one that blew my mind was that you can determine the speed of light by melting a chocolate bar in the microwave.

Microwave Chocolate

That’s so cool! (via open culture)


James Dyson on invention and failure

British industrialist and billionaire James Dyson has a pretty healthy outlook on failure.

You once described the inventor’s life as “one of failure.” How so?
I made 5,127 prototypes of my vacuum before I got it right. There were 5,126 failures. But I learned from each one. That’s how I came up with a solution. So I don’t mind failure. I’ve always thought that schoolchildren should be marked by the number of failures they’ve had. The child who tries strange things and experiences lots of failures to get there is probably more creative.

Not all failures lead to solutions, though. How do you fail constructively?
We’re taught to do things the right way. But if you want to discover something that other people haven’t, you need to do things the wrong way. Initiate a failure by doing something that’s very silly, unthinkable, naughty, dangerous. Watching why that fails can take you on a completely different path. It’s exciting, actually. To me, solving problems is a bit like a drug. You’re on it, and you can’t get off. I spent seven years on our washing machine [which has two drums, instead of one].

See also: Dyson Airblade