UNIT 2: TRANSPORTATION LESSON 1: MODES OF TRANSPORTATION.

UNIT 2: TRANSPORTATION

LESSON 1: MODES OF TRANSPORTATION

By the end of this lesson you should be able to:explain how transportation methods have evolved

over time identify how society uses diff erent modes of

transportation

Vocabulary & People of Interest

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Red River Cart George Stephenson Maglev Train Orville and Wilbur

Wright Assembly Line Henry Ford “Nell” Rocket Robert Goddard

Imagine you're standing in a field 200 years ago. You hear a loud, creaky noise coming from around the bend. Suddenly a large wooden contraption called a Red River Cart comes into view. The driver looks uncomfortable as he bounces along the rough trail. In the distance fur traders paddle their canoe across a vast lake.

INTRODUCTION TO TRANSPORTATION

The Red River cart was a large two-wheeled cart made entirely of non-metallic materials. Often drawn by oxen, though also by horses or mules, these carts are used throughout most of the 19th century in the fur trade in westward expansion in Canada and the United States, in the area of the Red River and on the plains west of the Red River Colony. The cart was a simple conveyance developed by Metis for use in their settlement on the Red River in what later became Manitoba.

Now imagine you're standing in the same spot today. Ahead on the highway you watch a truck pass a tollbooth without slowing down. A small plastic tag fixed to the truck sends account information to an overhead antenna, so the driver doesn't have to stop. A container ship makes its way across the inlet, where trucks and trains wait to take its goods to distant markets.

INTRODUCTION TO TRANSPORTATION

People have always needed to move themselves and their goods from one place to another. But how we do it has changed considerably over the years. Before we had modern transportation technology we walked, used boats, rode animals, or harnessed them to power primitive machines. Now we can drive, fl y, sail, and get around in many other ways. Not only do we get where we're going much faster today, we can bring more and more with us.

Personal transportation looks a lot diff erent today than it

did 200 years ago.

INTRODUCTION TO TRANSPORTATION

But is the advancement of transportation always a good thing?

Car accidents, train derailments, and plane crashes take many more lives than did transportation accidents of the past.

What happens to our society when people spend more time in their cars, and less time talking to each other? What are the eff ects on the environment of more and more energy-consuming forms of transportation? Are there ways we can prevent or solve these problems?

INTRODUCTION TO TRANSPORTATION

There are many diff erent modes or types of transportation. Which ones are commonly used or available depends on where you live. In a remote community you might be limited to motor vehicles and the occasional plane or train. In a coastal community you might make good use of boats and ferries. In an Arctic community you might rely on kayaks and dogsleds.

MODES OF TRANSPORTATION

In an urban centre you will have more modes of transportation to choose from.

In Vancouver, for example, you could use many diff erent modes of transportation, all on the same trip.

As a guest to the city, you could fly into the international airport, take the SkyTrain (Vancouver's light rail rapid transit system) to the downtown core, and then hop on the SeaBus, the passenger-only ferry, to cross to the North Shore.

MODES OF TRANSPORTATION

Buses run regularly through the downtown core and outlying suburbs. Abundant walking paths and bike trails help people cut down on their dependence on private automobiles.

As a visitor you could even explore the shoreline of Vancouver by canoe, boat, or kayak. To experience a unique mode of transportation, you could take a gondola to the top of Grouse Mountain, or a helicopter ride over the coastal mountains to view the scenery.

MODES OF TRANSPORTATION

If you wanted to travel across the Georgia Strait to Vancouver Island you could go by ferry, float plane, or private boat. Want to travel a little farther? The highway system, rail system, a variety of large to small planes and airports, even high-speed catamaran could take you on the next leg of your adventure.

MODES OF TRANSPORTATION

ACTIVITY 1: IDENTIFY MODES OF TRANSPORTATIONInstructions: Which of these things are modes of transportation? Place the fol lowing in the correct box on your note package.

MODES OF TRANSPORTATION

The last two hundred years have seen great advances in transportation modes. New and improved technologies have allowed us to travel longer distances at greater speed, while carrying more and more with us. Even the shortest commute today covers distances that would have been long and challenging in the early history of transportation.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF TRANSPORTATION

Although wooden rails had been used to pull horse-drawn carts over dirt roads in Germany as early as the 1500s, it was the invention of the steam engine that truly transformed land transportation in Europe.

Diff erent steam-powered vehicles had been built in the early 1800s, but Englishman George Stephenson is considered the inventor of the fi rst steam locomotive for railways.

LOCOMOTIVE

Stephenson's engine, named the "Rocket," was crafted by hand and took ten months to complete.

It was made up of cylinders containing pistons that were driven up and down by steam made in a boiler. The pistons drove crankshafts, which turned the wheels.

The locomotive was tested on a track that ran up a hill for four hundred and fi fty feet.

The engine hauled eight loaded coal wagons weighing thirty tons, at about four miles an hour.

LOCOMOTIVE

Even though Stephenson's Rocket didn't look anything like the locomotive engines that we see pulling trains today, it was the most successful working locomotive steam engine in its day.

The story of the train doesn't end with Stephenson. Railways helped open new frontiers and allowed boundaries in countries such as Canada to expand.

Train technology advanced to include high-speed trains, monorails, and maglev trains that use magnets to hover over the tracks.

LOCOMOTIVE

Since watching birds in fl ight, humans have wanted to conquer the skies. Balloons and kites fed the human imagination about the possibility of man in fl ight. Leonardo da Vinci is one of the most famous early designers who drew plans for many "flying machines."

AIRPLANES

Brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright were the fi rst to design and build a flying craft that could be controlled while in the air.

The brothers built upon previous knowledge about fl ight fi rst from hot air balloons and then from gliders. Gliders were very light planes without engines, and glider science and technology informed the Wright brothers about the aerodynamics of fl ight.

AIRPLANES

After a few failed attempts, the Wright brothers eventually found a two-winged glider design that would stay aloft. Their next job was to attach an engine that allowed the "flyer," as they named their plane, to take off from the ground using a downward sloping track. This fi rst fl ight in an engine powered, fix-winged aircraft took place on December 17th, 1903. Orville piloted the plane. It travelled more than one hundred feet in twelve seconds.

AIRPLANES

Henry Ford incorporated the Ford Motor Company in 1903. He wanted to build cars that the average citizen could aff ord.

Ford spent several years looking for ways to build automobiles cheaper and faster.

Eventually he started using moving assembly lines in his factories.

AUTOMOBILE ASSEMBLY LINE

Each worker on an assembly line had a specific task to perform over and over again as the cars rolled past.

One worker, for example, would install the steering wheel while another would install the seats.

The assembly line cut the average time to build a car from 14 to 2 hours. It also greatly reduced production costs. Ford built 472,000 Model T's in 1916. They sold for $360 each.

AUTOMOBILE ASSEMBLY LINE

The automobile changed the way people lived in cities. As more people bought cars, there was a growth in suburbs. A road and highway system was also built. The technology of the assembly line has been adopted in many other industries as well.

AUTOMOBILE ASSEMBLY LINE

The real possibility of space fl ight fi rst arose when Robert Goddard designed and made the fi rst liquid fuelled rocket.

Goddard believed that by using liquid fuel in a rocket he could make one twice as powerful as the powder-fuelled rockets that had existed for hundreds of years.

Goddard wrote that using liquid hydrogen as a fuel and liquid oxygen as an oxidizer that a rocket would have a far greater reach.

LIQUID FUELLED ROCKETS

Goddard's fi rst rocket injected liquid fuel and oxidizer under high pressure into a round combustion chamber. This caused an explosion that launched the rocket into the air.

Goddard named his fi rst rocket "Nell," and launched it at his Aunt's farm.

This fi rst rocket shot up into the air a grand total of 41 feet, and the whole fl ight lasted 42 seconds. Not a very long fl ight, but the fi rst to demonstrate that fuel and an oxidizer, when mixed together under great pressure and heat, provide great power.

LIQUID FUELLED ROCKETS

Eventually, Goddard managed to build rockets that reached to the speed of 885 kilometres per hour.

This laid the foundation for the exploration of space that followed.

LIQUID FUELLED ROCKETS

QUICK CHECK QUESTIONS