Helmet helper
At that place's no such thing as a good smack to the head up.
Whether you ski fine-tune a mountain, play football, or skate with the big boys along a hockey rink, you're at risk of a sports-related head injury. But the statistics of injuries bound up bicycling are what inspired Claire Longcroft, a 16-year-old 11th-grader at Collingwood School in West Vancouver, British Capital of South Carolina, to design an energy-absorbing liner for helmets.
In cycling accidents, she notes, riders strike their heads about 38 percent of the time; for children, the rate is an flat higher 55 percent. Furthermore, a whopping 10 percent of all trauma deaths in children result from head injuries while cycling.
A extensive share of the much serious head injuries involve what are named concussions. It's a typewrite of brain damage caused away a shaking of the brain Oregon severe reverse to the head. Concussion can cause headaches and even a temporary loss of consciousness. Afterwards, patients may suffer retentivity loss and foggy thought process for periods lasting from hours to weeks. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Bar,U.S.emergency rooms cover some 135,000 brain traumas (including concussions among school-age children).
On the far side these general statistics, however, Longcroft has in person witnessed the effects such accidents behind have. Her dad is an avid bicyclist. During a group ride cardinal years ago, some other rider crashed his motorcycle. Now, that gentleman is still suffering lingering personal effects of traumatic brain injury, including persistent pain and some degree of computer storage exit.
Longcroft's invention — the "Brake shoe Eyelid Helmet Helper" — is a cap-like liner that fits against a passenger's head. The liner is made of 1-centimeter-thick strips occupied with a viscoelastic gel. This gelatin squishes to absorb energy from an impact, distributing it across a all-inclusive area. Later, it slowly springs back into its seminal frame.
The high-cultivate engineer tested her new liner victimisation the same kind of tests used past the manufacturers who make bike helmets. For instance, she dropped 3-pound and 5-pound weights onto the helmet from high of 1 meter and 2 meters. Results of 240 such trials hint that the liner wish offer some protection against concussions and traumatic brain injuries, Longcroft reported Whitethorn 15 at the Intel International Scientific discipline and Engineering Fair in Pittsburgh, Pa.This consequence is sponsored by Intel Foundation and run past the Beau monde for Scientific discipline &adenylic acid; the Public (which publishes Science News for Kids).
A standard bike helmet (with Styrofoam padding) may absorb about 88 per centum of the Energy Department of an touch. Longcroft's results suggest that if the same helmet also enclosed a Slue Lid, it could protect the head from active 97 percent of an impact's energy.
In any case protecting against sports-kin injuries, Skid Lid could be incorporated into hard-hats used away construction workers, which typically are just a thin plastic trounce with a system of webbing that holds the hat a few centimeters supra the scalp, providing minimum cushioning, Longcroft notes.
This is the offse in a series of articles natural covering the Intel ISEF 2012 competition. Check back soon for more stories.
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