New Lupe Fiasco Single

There's a new Lupe Fiasco single out. I'm not normally a fan of rap/hip-hop, but I like some of his stuff.

I have Bicycle Activity that I designed last year, and I hope to improve it this time around.

Eventually, I think it could make a great WCYDWT-style activity. I'm thinking a video that involves a penny-farthing bicycle and a mountain bike, maybe one of those classy, chopper bikes. The question that I'm shooting for is "Which bike goes the farthest in one turn of the pedals?" Obviously, this could quickly become "Which would win in a race?", "How many pedal-strokes would it take to go x distance?", or countless others.

The Context

I don't know a ton about cars or bicycles, but from what I understand the gears on a bicycle provide a good example of a simple transmission. Basically, shifting up one gear allows the bike to move farther in one turn of the pedals, which is why you want to operate in a high gear during races. This achieved through gear ratios. In the old penny-farthing bicycles, there was no transmission, so the gear ratio was 1:1, meaning that one turn of the pedal meant one revolution of the wheel. By making the front wheel really big, the rider would travel farther (equal to the circumference of the front wheel) per pedal turn. Thus less work, farther distance.

But innovations in the world of bicycling have achieved the same result, and far-surpassed the penny-farthing, using transmissions. The transmission shrinks the ratio of pedal turns to wheel revolutions by using (typically) two different gears- front and rear.

 

The Goal

Students can predict how far the bicycle will travel with one turn of the pedals using ratios, proprtions, and equation solving skills. Developing the most accurate ways to measure the diameter of the wheel and gears is an added bonus, and students should be keen to get the best measurement if they want to win the prize for most accurate prediction! Note: Award prizes at your own discretion.

Sad Note

I just typed this whole post and realized I no longer have an electronic copy of plans for the lesson =(

I will re-type them and post them soon. But for now, I leave you with this question: If I were to try and film such a bicycle escapade (and could actually get my hands on a penny-farthing bicycle), what is the best (and hopefully cheapest) way to film and edit a video? I'm talking both hardware and software. I hope to use Qik soon for filming short videos, but it is not available for my phone yet. Thoughts or suggestions?