Lighthouses Nina and the Neurons

# If you've got a question and you don't know where to go

# Ask Nina for some help because she's got a science show

# She makes sense of our senses while helping all her fans

# By doing her experiments with potions and with bangs

-# Touch your tongue

-Tongue

-# Fingers

-Fingers

-# Eyes

-Eyes

-Ears

-Ears

-# Nose

-Nose

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Nina and The Neurons find out what you need to know

# Luke he helps us with our eyes and Felix with our touch

# Ollie sniffs out smells and scents and Belle she hears so much

# Bud is Ollie's brother He helps us with our taste

# They're Nina's little Neurons and they're coming to your place

-# Touch your tongue

-Tongue

-# Fingers

-Fingers

-# Eyes

-Eyes

-Ears

-Ears

-# Nose

-Nose

-# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

-Yeah!

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Oh, yeah! #

Brrtrrrr!

Oh! Hello there!

I'm just playing with my little boat and my lovely lighthouse.

Look at this. There's a light at the top of the lighthouse that's

telling my little boat to stay away from the rocks.

Brrrrrrr.

BEEPING

I hear a beep, I see a flash. I wonder what they're going to ask.

BOTH: Hi, Nina!

Hi!

We've got a question for you.

How are lighthouses built?

Oh, that's a great question!

How are lighthouses built?

Lighthouses are tall towers that are found by the sea with a big

light at the very top.

Come down to my workshop and we'll investigate.

BOTH: See you soon, Nina. Bye!

Bye!

Well, I'm going to need some help to answer this one

and I know just who to ask.

OK, Neurons, time to get to work.

ALL: Neurons at the ready, Nina.

OK, today's question is, how are lighthouses built?

Which Neuron will be most useful in helping us find the answer?

It's Luke!

CHEERING

ALL: Go, Luke! Go, Luke! Go, Luke!

Go, Luke! Go, Luke! Go, Luke!

Go, Luke!

Cool, Nina! I'll be looking out to help you!

Today's question is, how are lighthouses built?

Because ships see the light at the top of a lighthouse,

Luke will be helping us today.

Stand by, Neurons. I've a feeling I may need help from all of you.

I need to get the workshop ready before the experimenters arrive.

Livingstone loves going to karate.

Oisin likes learning about volcanoes.

But they both want to know, how are lighthouses built?

So today, for one day only, Livingstone and Oisin

become the experimenters.

-Hi, guys!

-BOTH: Hi, Nina!

Welcome to my workshop and thank you for your great question,

how are lighthouses built?

Well, first, let's have a look at my cool toy lighthouse.

-Now, what do you notice about it?

-It's tall.

It's stripy.

That's right, it is tall and stripy.

It looks just like a yummy ice lolly! Yum, yum, yum!

Yeah, it does look a bit like an ice lolly, Bud.

Some lighthouses, like this one, have stripes

so they're much easier to see during the day.

Now, have a look at this.

Wow! You can see the light much better in the dark.

It's especially important for ships to be able to see

lighthouses at night because it's dark, so they can't see the land.

Seeing the light at the top of the lighthouse helps ships to navigate,

which means to find their way and make sure they don't hit any rocks.

Now, what else do you notice about our lighthouse?

It's round.

It is round and most lighthouses are round, like a tube.

Let's do an experiment to find out why.

ALL: Whoop-whoop! An experiment! We're ready, Nina!

We are going to pretend that these two towers are lighthouses.

So this is our box lighthouse, it has flat sides

and this here is our tube lighthouse, it has curved sides.

Of course, lighthouses are built near the sea

and it can often get windy and stormy, so let's put the wind on.

Let's watch.

Huh! Oh!

-Hey! What's happened to the lighthouses?

-It fell over.

Yes, the box lighthouse fell over

but the curved tube lighthouse stayed up.

Let's find out why.

OK, so here we have a board with lots of ribbons on it and we still

have our two lighthouses and, of course, it's still windy by the sea.

-So what's happening to the ribbons?

-They're moving.

-They are moving.

The wind is moving the ribbons around the lighthouses

but are there any ribbons that aren't moving?

Those ones.

You are right, the wind isn't getting to these ribbons and that's

because the wind is pushing here, against the flat side of the box.

But here the curved sides allow the wind to go around the tube

and move the ribbons behind it.

Because tubes let the wind go round them,

tube shaped things don't get blown over so easily.

Can people go inside?

Well, people need to get to the top to check the light and fix it

if it breaks but how do you think they would get up there?

With stairs.

Hmmm. I think we need to go somewhere high up to find out.

Hmmm. Where do you think we're going today?

Nina said we're going somewhere high up.

Maybe we're going up a big, big mountain.

Oh, I hope it's not too high.

Well, it is high up but it doesn't look like a mountain.

OK, experimenters, so far we have found out that

lighthouses are built like tall tubes to let the wind blow

round them and that they have lights at the very top.

So I've brought you here to this lighthouse.

Now, it was built a long, long time ago.

Oh, Nina! It's so high up.

It is, Luke!

Now, can you see where the light is?

-BOTH: Yes!

-Yes, at the top.

A long time ago the lighthouse keeper would have to check

the light lots of times in one day.

So how do you think they got to the top?

BOTH: Stairs!

Stairs, well, I think so but that's going to be a lot of stairs.

Is this lighthouse wide or thin?

BOTH: Thin.

Hmmm, you're right. So I wonder how they fit all the stairs in.

Come with me, experimenters. Let's go!

OK, we are going to use these foam blocks to try and build

lots of stairs to see how much room they take up.

So are you ready?!

-BOTH: Yes!

-Well, let's get building!

Stay behind the stairs.

-Where does this last one go?

-BOTH: At the top.

OK, so how may stairs have we built? Let's count them.

BOTH: One, two, three, four.

Four stairs.

So four stairs takes up this much room.

Now, I have worked out if we were to make enough steps

to get to the top of this lighthouse,

we'd have to keep building all the way over here to this flag!

That looks too wide to fit inside this narrow lighthouse, Nina.

That's right, Luke, if the stairs were built like this,

they'd never fit inside the tall, thin lighthouse.

-How do you get to the top?

-That's a great question.

I think we need to go and have a look

inside the lighthouse to find out.

Ah-ha! So what shape is the staircase?

-Round.

-That's right.

Sometimes stairs are built round in a spiral shape,

so they fit into narrow buildings.

So shall we count all the steps up to the top?

-BOTH: Yes.

-Come on then!

ALL: One, two, three, four...

..74, 75, 76!

Oh-ho-ho! We're here! Ha-ha!

Oh, look at this big lamp!

Phew! That was a lot of stairs.

If Nina was a lighthouse keeper, she'd be very fit!

I really would, Bud.

Hey! I am very fit!

Let's look out the window.

What a great view, Nina!

Look how high up we are!

Why are lighthouses so high up, Nina?

That's a great question!

This lighthouse is tall and it's on a cliff, so it's very, very high.

I think we need to go back to the workshop to find out.

So your question was, how are lighthouses built?

So far we've found out that lighthouses are tube shaped

to let the wind go round them

and their stairs are built in a spiral to fit them all in.

But why are they so high up?

Well, I've got the perfect experiment to find out.

Now, we're going to use these head torches to become human lighthouses.

So let's turn our head torches on.

Excellent.

So let's see how far our torch beams reach and I'll dim the lights

so we can see even better.

Right, I would like everyone to stand up nice

and straight, with your heads looking straight forward.

-So who can spot three lights on the ground?

-Me!

Whose torch light has travelled the furthest?

Yours, Nina!

That's right, that is my light there. Hello!

Why do you think mine has travelled the furthest?

-Because you're the tallest, Nina.

-That's right!

So let's turn our head torches off.

Put the lights back up.

There we go. Have a look at this.

Light travels in a straight line

but our lights were all pointing the same way and at the same angle but

because my torch was higher up, my light travelled further than yours.

Ah! So the ships will be able to see the light from far away.

-And that gives them time to change direction.

-I'm like a lighthouse!

ALL: Ha-ha-ha-ha!

Lighthouses are high up

so the light from the lamp can travel as far across the sea

as possible, giving ships plenty of time to change direction,

if they need to.

# Nina and the Neurons. #

So your question was, how are lighthouses built?

And I think we've answered it.

We learnt that lighthouses are tube shaped

so they don't get blown over by the wind.

Lighthouse keepers had to check the light at the top.

Lighthouse stairs are usually in a spiral shape

so they fit inside the tower.

Lighthouses are very, very high up

so ships can see the light from far away.

And that's because the higher the lighthouse is,

the further its light will travel.

So I hope that's answered your question!

BOTH: Thanks, Nina! Bye!

You're welcome! Bye!

If you want to know more about the science that's all around us,

go to the Nina section on the CBeebies website.

Have fun!

# Super structures Super structures

# Super structures Super structures

# Super structures

# Some of them are tall Some of them are wide

-# They're bumpy, lumpy, wiggly too

-Wiggly too

# Some of them are strong Some of them are small

# Like me!

# They're windy, whirly, whooshy too

# All around Look over here

# Build it, stack it, pile it up

# Come on, let's get building

-# Building

-Building

-Building

# Race it, hold it, make it stick

# Come on, let's get building

# Come on, let's get building

# Some of them are cosy warm Some of them are chilly

# Keep us safe and hide us too

# Hide us too

# Some of them are just for fun Or help us to stay dry

# They're underground and high up too

# Look around Over here

# Build it, stack it, pile it up

# Come on, let's get building

-# Building

-Building

-Building

# Race it, hold it, make it stick

# Come on, let's get building

# Come on, let's get building! #

And remember, there are super structures everywhere.

Whether they are big or small, wide or tall, we can all get building.

See you again soon. Bye!

-ALL: Bye!

-Get building!