This detailed exemplar explores the rocket engine performance in the BLOODHOUND SSC engineering project. It requires student knowledge of physics, chemistry and mathematics when applied in mechanical engineering.

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These materials use the land speed record attempt as a context for teaching about the irreversible changes and energy transfers that occur in BLOODHOUND SSC’s rocket engine.

The BLOODHOUND SuperSonic Car (SSC) World...

This resource is based on Thomas Heatherwick’s rolling bridge at Paddington Basin in London. Rolling bridges are also used in areas after natural disasters to provide temporary crossings. There are exercises involving the mathematical analysis of the design and some basic construction of models of the bridge. The...

In this activity, students are asked to analyse data to work out which form of personal transport is currently the least safe. They then consider what safety features are in use at the moment.

Students brainstorm and...

This maths-based challenge explores sustainable travel, developing student understanding of the effects that some modes of transport have on the environment and ways of reducing it.

Students are asked to compare alternative methods of transport by calculating journey times and their carbon footprints.  The...

This resource looks at some of the mathematics behind using solar panels to generate electricity both for use in the home and to power cars. The mathematics involved requires the calculation of complicated areas and using multiple bits of information to solve a problem. As such, the resource is ideal for enhancing...

This outreach programme aimed to build upon good practice from the Royal Society of Chemistry's (RSC) project Chemistry for our Future, and to develop new activities which could then be used with the RSC’s Spectroscopy in a Suitcase (SIAS) equipment. It explored appropriate contexts which may appeal to students...

This resource, from Mathematics for Engineering Exemplars, shows the application of mathematics within the field of mechanical engineering. Here students learn that lack of proper insulation results in large energy losses which, over time, cost a lot of money. Models are used to calculate the value of the critical...

This resource, from Mathematics for Engineering Exemplars, shows the application of mathematics within the mechanical and civil engineering industry. Here students learn how calculations for displacement, velocity and acceleration, caused during loading, are used to ensure that they are not so large as to adversely...

This resource, from Mathematics for Engineering Exemplars, shows the application of mathematics when designing and developing engines. As well as considering the power requirements for a given application, the vibration of the system should be considered. The engine installation in a machine must ensure that the...

This resource, from Mathematics for Engineering Exemplars, shows the application of mathematics within the field of sports technology to compare the potential for injury to the knee or ankle when cycling and when jogging. Students model a situation involving oscillations, looking at inertial forces, Newton’s Laws...

This resource, from Mathematics for Engineering Exemplars, shows the application of mathematics when designing highway machinery. Because a driver has to remain in the same machine for almost eight hours each day, the vibration amplitudes of the operator’s seat, which should be kept as low as possible, are a key...

This activity challenges students to work in small teams to design a water supply system for a small town of 5,000 inhabitants. They have to work within a budget, including giving themselves a profit margin.

The...