Science Camp
Dr Adam Rutherford answers YOUR questions about the science of camping Dear Adam, WHAT is the fastest wind that a tent could stay up in?
Ed Bumfluff, Crewe
Adam says: That’s a very good question, Ed, and the answer depends on a number of different variables. Camping scientists developed what they term the Fundamental Tent Equation which addresses this question, namely: Ø=angle
Where =windspeed, = number of poles in the tent, =tension in the guyropes, =tensile coefficient of the tent pegs, =the surface area of the tent,
of incidence of the wind and = the percentage competency with which it was erected.
WHAT were the earliest humans to make tents?
Jack Percival, Stockholm
Dear Adam, Adam says:
Anthropologists have made discoveries that indicate that Homo neanderthalis were making shelters by draping animal skins over a frame of mammoth tusks as far back as 40,000 years ago. However, these Neanderthal shelters were for living in rather than going on holiday in, so they can’t really be classed as tents.
Dear Adam,
I’VE GOT a Baylis wind-up torch with a port to plug in another appliance. How fast would my wife have to turn it to run a 55-inch telly in our tent?
Bramwell Tollpuddle, Hull
Adam says: That’s an interesting question. If we assume that your torch pulls about 3 watts to work, which requires it to be wound at about 2 revolutions per second, then this means that for a standard 57W LED TV, your wife is going to have to crank the torch around 38 times per second. If you have the more power hungry 98W OLED version, she’s going to have to step it up a bit to just over 65 revolutions per second, or 3,920 rpm.
Adam says: The more shallow the angle of the peg to the ground, the more it will resist the pull on it exerted by the tension of the guy rope. However, a shallow angle will mean that the soil above the peg will not exert much of a downward force to keep it in place. The best compromise is to erect the tent so that the guy-ropes subtend an angle of 90˚ to the peg, so always remember to take a large protractor on any camping trip.