Patent Application
20220020290
The field of the invention is an educational toy, and in particular, a kit that can be used by a child to assemble a device used to explore the relationship between air pressure, air temperature and air volume.
It is well known that the volume of a gas changes with temperature and pressure according to the ideal gas law, often written in the form PV=nRT, where P is pressure, V is volume, n is number of moles of gas, R is the universal gas constant, and T is temperature. (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideal gas law). Many apparatus have been designed to convert the change in volume of a gas in response to changes in pressure into the movement of a needle or slide indicator to accurately monitor the change and assign values to various pressures or volumes. These devices are the basis of many tools such as weather predictors, blood-pressure cuffs, tire-pressure readers, pressure indicators on gas cylinders, airplane altimeters, etc. and they typically use the expansion or contraction of the gas to move a membrane or piston and then translate that movement into the rotation of a needle indicator. Unfortunately these devices are usually expensive, often fragile, and designed for use in a particular application such as meteorology, medicine or aviation, offer no insight into their mechanism of operation, and are not readily available to children for the purpose of education. Also, these barometers do not offer the opportunity for simple assembly from a kit form to enhance the understanding of the operation and the associated insights into the universal gas law. These devices are primarily designed for accuracy rather than ease of assembly and educational value.
With the advent of S.T.E.M (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and its focus on educational kits and devices to enhance learning, an inexpensive and simple to use barometer kit enabling one to assemble a working barometer and conduct experiments involving temperature, and weather is needed. The kit can also include instructions for assembly and use, relevant curriculum material, and activities and experiments that can be conducted in the home, in a classroom, or in vehicles such as cars, trucks, trains, airplanes, helicopters, etc.
A kit includes a rigid or semi-rigid container with a volume of approximately 200-500 cubic centimeters with a single opening that allows gas to easily flow in or out (optionally this container can be sourced separately such as a recycled soda can or water bottle). A flexible membrane such as a latex and a means to affix the membrane to the container in such a way that gas cannot flow in or out of the container such as a rubber band so that changes in volume of the gas will cause the membrane to flex. A support structure that can be affixed to the container that supports a needle indicator that rotates from its base and a rigid piston that is in contact with the membrane and in contact with the needle so that when the membrane moves, the piston translates and the needle rotates. The support structure additionally has a means to affix a stiff paper or plastic card to create a dial on which can be drawn graduated markings to associate numbers with the motion of the needle.
In the drawings, the same reference character denotes the same element in each of the views.
It also shows how support structure 3 is connected to container 7 by means of three feet 15 which grab the edges of the container by means of a small amount of flex in the support structure 3, a bump on the inside of foot 15 which catches on the lip on the container 7.
Thus, a novel educational toy for the exploration of the relationship of pressure, volume, and temperature has been shown and described.
Various changes and substitutions may of course be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. The invention, therefore, should not be limited, except to the following claims and their equivalents.
