House design in Hurricane/Typhoon areas. While much of destruction is caused by tornadoes within these storms, still a great number of homes are seen to suddenly have their roofs lift off and then the unsupported walls collapse. Why do the roofs lift off? Are they following the same principles of wing-lift?
For a low-tech project, start with a shoe-box and glue in gables to each end:
Then from posterboard, cut out, bend and place a roof onto this "house." Do not glue the roof on; let it just rest on the gables. The eaves may be of different extensions. Make pairs of identical gables of different roof steepnesses. Place one house at a time in front of a fan to see just how well the roof will stay on. Of course record your data for later graphing (teachers love graphs!).
Once you have found a roof steepness that is especially susceptible to blowing off, then see what you can do to "retrofit" the house so that the roof won't blow off. An example might be to add something rough to the roof - to make it lumpy.
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