Burn Notice - TV Series, Spy Show, Characters, Schedule, Videos & Photos - USA NETWORK -Burn Notice Science Challenge

USA Network and Burn Notice are giving high school students across the country the chance to test their science knowledge and creativity! To enter, students must solve a safe yet compelling challenge that your favorite character on the show might face, such as covertly communicating with other operatives, surveilling enemy territory and gathering intelligence on adversaries.

Grand Prize winners will receive a $10,000 scholarship, meet cast & crew of Burn Notice and be recognized on USA Network! The Burn Notice Science Challenge encourages learning in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and shows that science can be fun, interesting and rewarding! Good luck students!

LOUD AND CLEAR

Just because spies often have to work alone, doesn't mean they don't have to communicate with each other. The secrets you uncover are useless if you can't transmit them to your superiors, and any large scale operation is destined to fail if you can't coordinate with other operatives in the field.

There's a vital piece of information you need to get from one of your fellow operatives. Only problem is, you can't be seen meeting with each other. It's up to you to find a way to communicate without alerting your enemies. Assume all phone lines and computers are being monitored, so the only way to communicate will be to improvise something.

Whatever you construct must allow you and your fellow operatives to communicate covertly across a distance of at least 100 feet, with at least one man-made barrier separating them.

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THE SCIENCE OF COMMUNICATION

Communicating over great distances is a remarkable scientific feat with many interesting engineering challenges.

The longest transmission ever received originated from the spacecraft Pioneer 10 in 2003 when it was more than twice as far as Pluto is from the Sun. At that distance it takes a radio signal more than 11 hours to arrive at Earth! On board is a plaque with the engraving of humans and a diagram of our solar system in the event an alien might find it and wish to locate us. Communicating with aliens is one mission of the radio telescope at Arecibo.

They are broadcasting semi-primes into space with the hope that a civilization might pick up the signal. For example, if an alien tunes into the number 1679 they will recognize that this is the product of the prime numbers 73 and 23. When arranged into a rectangular array this will form the picture to the left. Prime numbers allow us to speak in a universal language.

Closer to home, Elephants are known to communicate by using Infrasound. With vocal chords eight times longer than humans they can produce sounds we cannot hear. What is amazing about low frequency sound is that it can transmit long distances through the atmosphere without much attenuation. You likely recognize this whenever you hear the rumbling of an approaching storm; you are able to hear the low frequency thunder but not the high frequency cracks of lightening until the storm is right above you. Elephants can make these low frequencies transmit nearly ten kilometers!

Imagine what dinosaurs where capable of! Scientists use this technology and have set up sixty infrasound detectors across the world to listen to the sounds of a rogue atomic blast. In the event of an explosion they will be able to triangulate and locate the source.

Long before electricity people communicated with the use of signals. Native Americans used drums and smoke. Napoleon actually used a Semaphore line to communicate in battle. Semaphores are an alphabetic code symbolized by the use of two flags held in different positions. By using line of sight between permanent stations signals could be transmitted thousands of miles. It was even possible to send messages across the English Channel using a similar system with light houses. The rate of data transmission is extremely limited just as it is with the telegraph, invented by Samuel Morse in 1837. The fastest anyone can send Morse Code is about 75 words per minute. Communicating with submarines is also very data limited.

Radio waves do not travel under water because sea water is conductive and reflects radio waves. If a sub wants to talk it must come up to the surface and stick out an antenna, which unfortunately makes it a target during war. This is a difficult engineering problem to solve. However, scientists have discovered that extremely low frequency electromagnetic waves can transmit to deeply submerged submarines. The government has built a transmission facility in Wisconsin that can send messages around the world at frequencies of only 50 Hertz. Unfortunately, the data rate is very limited so messages are brief and coded.

Courtesy: Michael Lampert, Science Teacher, West Salem High School, Salem, OR & Advisor to the Burn Notice Science Challenge

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EYE IN THE SKY

Since the Civil War, spies have turned to the skies to gather information on their enemies. Today, the U.S. government spends billions of dollars on keyhole satellites that can read the headline off a newspaper and unmanned aerial drones that can identify an enemy combatant from a mile above. These technologies are incredibly useful in the world of intelligence gathering, but completely useless to a spy who needs one on the fly.

Your mission is to get surveillance on an enemy compound. Only problem is: it's surrounded by 20-foot walls and using a ladder to peek over may attract some unwanted attention. Find a way to improvise your own aerial drone to get surveillance photos of the inside of the enemy compound. Try to only use repurposed supplies because buying anything too specific to your task will definitely raise suspicions. Find the most creative way to build your drone and deploy it.

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THE SCIENCE OF AERIAL SURVEILLANCE

A very famous photograph is that of San Francisco taken a short time after the 1906 earthquake. George Lawrence hoisted a 49 pound camera on a kite to take this photo below.

The timely convergence of quality photography with kites made them useful during WWI for surveillance of enemy positions.

They even were able to make man lifting kites that could hoist a person to peer down from above. Since that time Kite photography has become quite popular and many amateurs do this with lightweight digital cameras.

Before kites, hot air balloons were quite popular for surveillance. The French used them in battle

during the 1700's and The US Army Balloon Corps used them during the Civil War. The operator would send messages to the ground by dropping notes or by using a semaphore line. Hot air is about 75% the density of cold air, so it will rise above it just like ice cubes float on water. You can calculate the lift of a hot air balloon using an online lift calculator. Generally it is the difference between the outside air temperature and the inside balloon temperature as well as the ambient air pressure that controls how much lift is possible.

Airplanes and satellites have made a huge difference in photographic surveillance; much of it is due to the ability to take photos in different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. Plants reflect near infrared light and this can be used to assess crop health through high altitude photography. It is possible to modify digital cameras by removing the infrared filter. While the human eye cannot see infrared wavelengths you can do an experiment to see infrared light using a simple TV remote and your cell phone. Bees and other insects are able to see in the UV spectrum. Their view of the world in quite different than ours!

MAV's or Micro Aerial Vehicles are the newest technology for aerial surveillance. These drones are less than six inches in length and can carry video cameras. They are characterized by very low Reynolds numbers and low payloads. At these low weights and speeds they do not have sleek designs and may resemble birds with flapping wings. Many new university classes have design competitions for MAV's and there are several radio control forums that discuss how to make your own.

Courtesy: Michael Lampert, Science Teacher, West Salem High School, Salem, OR & Advisor to the Burn Notice Science Challenge

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DO NOT DISTURB

When you're spying on foreign soil, it's not a question of if your home will be searched, but when. That's why spies have to take some extra security precautions. Scaring the intruders away won't do you any good... what you want is the opportunity to find out who they are.

Build a makeshift alarm system that can covertly alert you when someone's breaking in and find a way to catch a picture or video of him/her without him/her knowing. Going to the store and buying a consumer alarm system or surveillance equipment will raise some red flags, so make sure whatever security system you build is either made from seemingly innocuous materials, or repurposed from other easily obtained household items.

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THE SCIENCE OF ALARMS

Every alarm requires some sort of sensor that is triggered at the right time. There are incredible number of sensors out there, each operating on very interesting scientific principles. They can measure pressure, temperature, light, acceleration, motion, radiation, heat, sound, ozone, carbon dioxide, heart rate, glucose, touch and so many other amazing essential things in our daily lives.

One sensor that many people are familiar with is the accelerometer. They are used in cell phones to indicate tilt and are helpful in gaming or in locating the stars. Everyone relies on accelerometers while driving. Some cars have at least six located throughout the car ready to trigger an airbag in the event of a collision. There are several ways to make an accelerometer; one is to micro-machine interlacing silicon fingers that move together like tiny hairs as an object is accelerated. Another is to encase a small bubble and measure its movement away from its center position. They are easy to obtain from supply houses but require some knowledge of electronics to hook up.

Another ubiquitous sensor is the bi-metallic strip. This common device is used in your oven to control the temperature and also in your house to maintain an even heat. It works by a simple principle of heat expansion. The warmer a metal gets the more active the molecules become, requiring more space to move around resulting in expansion. By sandwiching two different flat metals together they will expand at different rates causing the sandwich to curl. If an electric circuit is built around the bi-metallic strip it can be triggered to turn on and off with the expansion.

An interesting detector is used to alert you in the event of a fire. Many smoke detectors have a small bit of radioactive Americium 241 in them. This radioactive isotope has a half-life of 432 years. There is a small chamber in which the air from the room is sampled. Normally there are a few ions floating around caused by the alpha particles that are emitted from the decaying Americium. These are pushed by a small electric field inside the detector where it amplifies this small current. If smoke enters the room the particles will neutralize the ions and the detector will notice a drop in current, causing the speaker to emit a loud noise.

When walking into the store the doors will automatically open because they are sensing motion. There are a number of ways to do this but most use infrared sensors. These are small devices built of pyroelectric crystals that measure heat. As a person moves toward the sensor it compares the output from two different areas. If there is a difference then there is motion and the doors open. Using light to trigger devices is quite common to turn on your TV. A small infrared light is pulsed and modulated to preform different tasks like controlling the volume or selecting the channel.

This is called pulse width modulation (PWM) and is a very common technique to control the speed of a motor. Probably the most common light sensor is the Cadmium Sulfide Photocell. This is a device with a light sensitive chemical that changes its resistance in the presence of light, the more light that strikes it the less resistance it has. It is used in garage door openers as a safety device to protect young children from having the door come down on them. A small beam of light is focused across the opening to the cell and if a child is in the way, the circuit knows to stop the door immediately.

Courtesy: Michael Lampert, Science Teacher, West Salem High School, Salem, OR & Advisor to the Burn Notice Science Challenge

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