April Choi works as an engineer at the Kennedy Space Center.
And she’s also an expert in whipping. Literally. She holds world records.
Choi will discuss both roles as a guest speaker at Science Night Live, the adults-only event at the Orlando Science Center on Saturday night.
His professional background includes circus arts, dance, education and rocket science.
“My parents always encouraged me to be interested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” says Choi, who holds two engineering degrees from the University of Iowa. “I found a lot more interest in dance, martial arts and performing arts, so I pursued that for a while.”
It was during this time that she learned how to crack her whip. Since then, she has held several world records related to the whip, including that of the longest whip ever cracked in the world, measuring 112 meters.
“The longest whip was the first Guinness World Record I broke,” Choi said. It has also been recognized by the Online World Records and RecordSetter organizations, although the record for the longest whip is no longer in Guinness’ favor.
“They don’t currently recognize the record I had because it was made with the help of my wife, who was able to pay more attention to it, and it was also made from ‘new material,'” Choi said.
A man with a long whip made of an “original and traditional material” asked Guinness to redefine the category. Choi’s whip was made of nylon, a common alternative to traditional leather.
“I didn’t understand it [the record] “I don’t think I will, because I already threw that whip away. It was 360 feet long and it was getting annoying to store in our house,” Choi said. “I had the disk once. I have the RecordSetter disk. I’ll be happy.”
As an engineer, she worked in the automotive, agricultural and aerospace industries, and went to work at the Kennedy Space Center five years ago.
She linked whips to her work. Her description includes terms such as shock waves, compressible flow, shock waves, and supersonic fluid dynamics,
A visual representation of the physics of whip cracking can be seen in Choi’s appearance with Destin Sandlin on the YouTube series Smarter Every Day.
“We were able to gain deeper insights into the dynamics, kinematics and mechanics of whip motion, and also obtained the first Schlieren video image of a shock wave developing at the tip of a whip,” Choi said.
“There was footage of the shockwave, but this was actually the first time we got high-speed, high-definition video… watching the cracker go from this big fluffy body to a streamlined body, picking up speed and eventually exceeding the speed of sound,” she said.
Choi’s responsibilities at KSC are evolving from ground systems (think trains, planes, tracks and the vehicle assembly building) to flight systems.
“I’ll be working as an aerospace engineer, doing mechanical and fluid analysis for structures,” she said. “My big, big, big project right now is analyzing all the data from the Artemis 1 launch to better understand how the acoustic interactions between NASA’s rocket and the rest of the ground systems are happening.”
Orlando Science Center: Exhibit Highlights Pace of ‘World Records’
Science Night Live is open to those 21 and older and features exhibits on four floors of the science center, including the Science of Guinness World Records exhibit. It also includes stargazing, trivia, big-screen movies, live experiments and other activities.
Choi carries a whip.
“I was going to do some demonstrations, some targeting, some rhythmic whip cracking, and probably some whip slashing and stuff, just to show what you can do with whips,” she said. “And I would probably spend a lot of time talking about science and physics.”
Tickets for Science Night Live are $20 and must be purchased online in advance. For purchases and more information, visit osc.org.
