April Choi works as an engineer at the Kennedy Space Center.
He is also a master whip. Literally. He holds world records.
Choi will discuss both areas as a featured speaker at Science Night Live, an adults-only event at the Orlando Science Center on Saturday evening.
His career has included circus arts, dance, education and rocket science.
“My parents always encouraged me to go into STEM — science, technology, engineering, math,” said Choi, who earned a dual engineering degree at the University of Iowa. “I got more interested in dance and karate and performing arts, so I pursued that for a bit.”
It was during that time that he learned how to buck the bull. Since then, he has held many whip-related world records, including the world’s longest whip ever broken. It was 365 meters.
“The longest whip was the first Guinness World Record I ever broke,” Choi said. He has also been recognized by the Online World Records and RecordSetter organizations, although the record for longest broken record is no longer held by Guinness.
“Currently they don’t recognize the record I had because it was done with the help of my wife to be able to provide more care, and it was done with ‘new equipment,'” Choi said.
A man with a long whip made from “original, traditional materials” asked Guinness to redefine the category. Choi’s whip was made of nylon, a traditional leather alternative.
“I haven’t found it yet [the record] later though. I don’t think I will, because I’ve already thrown away that whip. It was 365 meters long, and it was already a big pain to store in our house,” Choi said. “I got a record once. I have a RecordSetter record. I will be happy.”
As an engineer, he has worked in the automotive, agricultural and aerospace industries, going to work at the Kennedy Space Center for the past five years.
He has combined whips in his work. His definition includes terms such as shock waves, compressible flow, shock waves and fluid dynamics,
A visual demonstration of the physics of whiplash can be seen in Choi and Destin Sandlin’s appearance on the Smarter Every Day series on YouTube.
“We delved into the dynamics, the kinematics, the mechanics of how the whip moves, as well as getting the first Schlieren video image of the shock wave being developed from the tip of the whip,” Choi said. .
“There have been images of bow tremors, but this was the first time we got high-speed, high-definition video … we watched a fragment go from this white body to the the body is soft, so it speeds up and eventually skips its speed,” he said.
Choi’s responsibilities at KSC are shifting from ground systems — think trains, planes, crawlers and the Vehicle Assembly Building — to aircraft systems.
“I’m going to work as an aeronautical engineer, doing hydraulic and mechanical analysis for buildings,” he said. “My big, big, big project right now is collecting all the data on Artemis 1 to understand better understand how sound interactions occur between NASA rockets and other ground systems.”
Orlando Science Center: Exhibit has ‘World Records’ speed
Science Night Live is open to those 21 and older, with four floors of exhibits in the science center, among them the “Science of Guinness World Records”. It also includes stargazing, trivia, big screen movies, live auditions and other activities.
Choi packs a whip.
He said: “I was going to do a couple of shows, some lead, some whiplash, maybe a couple of raps and stuff, to show what you can do with whips. And you probably spend a lot of money talking about science and physics.
Tickets for Science Night Live are $20 and must be purchased online in advance. For pricing and more information, visit osc.org.
dbevil@orlandosentinel.com
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