INTRO: Our project was anything but straight forward. We reached our end product through much blood, sweat, and tears, but the final product was godly. At the beginning our group was probably the most dysfunctional one out there, but after we realized that we actually had to get work done, we got work done. Our first idea included a catapult that launched a marble into a screw. That didn't work at all. We went through many other changes for our project till we came out with this untamable beast.
WALKTHROUGH: (don't read this, it's boring) Our project has 12 steps. We have penguins, pulleys, and inclined planes as far as the eye can see. The first step was a pulley. It had a mechanical advantage of 1. This is because it only went through 1 pulley. The pulley had potential energy of 1.5675 J. We found this because we know that potential energy = mass x gravity x height. The mass was .298 kg, gravity is approximately 10 N, and the height was .285 m. Its Kinetic energy is also 1.5675 J. because when the pulley is activated, potential energy turns into kinetic energy. The pulley was activated by a weight that was dropped into a cup. The pulley pulled a card out from under a rubber stopper. Step 2 is a wedge. The velocity is .61 m/s. In this step a card is pulled from underneath the rubber stopper. The stopper then falls onto a wheel and axle. Step 3 is the rubber stopper falling. It has the potential energy of .1834 J. The mass was .095 kg, gravity is approximately 10 N, and the height is .193 meters. The kinetic energy is also .1834 J. Step 4 is a wheel and axle. There is no math for this step. The rubber stopper falls onto the wheel and axle, causing it to spin and release a wooden ball. Step 5 is an inclined plane. the distance is .21 m, and the time it takes for the ball to go down the inclined plane is .83 seconds. Using the formula d=vt, we found that the velocity is .61 m/s. In this step the ball is released from the wheel, it rolls down the inclined plane, and it hits a weight. In step 6 a ball hits a weight. The ball hits one of the three weights and it falls into the cup. We used both the force (F=ma) and the distance (d=vt) formula. We found the mass and acceleration and our equation looked like F=0.05(0.286). The answer we found was F= 0.163 J. We then found the distance. We plugged in the distance and the time and our equation looked like 0.4=v1.4. The answer we found velocity= 0.285 m/s. Step seven is a pulley. The weight falls into the cup, which then drops down causing a piece of cardboard to move up and release a marble. The mechanical advantage is one since we only had one pulley. We then found the potential energy. After plugging in the numbers to PE=mgh we got PE= 0.295(10)(0.2205). We then calculated the equation and found that the potential energy was 0.664 J. We then moved on to kinetic energy. The final equation was KE= 1/2(0.295)(4.502)^2. The answer we found was KE= 0.664 J. Step 8 is another inclined plane. The marble that is released in the previous step rolls down the inclined plane until it hits the lever. We used the d=vt equation to solve for this step. The distance was one meter and the time it took for the marble to complete the step was 0.86 seconds. So our equation was 1m=v(0.86s). The answer we found was velocity= 1.163 m/s. Step 9 is a lever. The marble hits the lever, pushing a penguin on the other side onto the staircase. It is a type one lever. We used the force and work equations to solve for this step. For the force equation the final numbers we plugged in was F= 1.163(0.55). The answer we found was force= 0.6397 N. We then plugged that number into the work formula. Our equation was w= 0.6397(0.13). The work of this step was 0.083161 J. Step 10 is yet another inclined plane. The penguin hits the marble and it rolls down the inclined plane into a water bottle which drops it down to the lower level. We used the distance equation in this step. The distance was 0.49 meters and the time it took for the marble to complete this step was 0.54 seconds. So our equation was 0.49m=v(0.54s). The answer we then found was velocity= 0.907 m/s. Step 11 is the last inclined plane. After falling through the plastic water bottle, the marble rolls down an inclined plane until it hits a weight, which is then pushed into a cup. We used the distance equation to solve for this step. The distance was 0.82 meters and the time it took was1.77 seconds. So our equation was 0.82m=v(1.77s). We then solved for v and found that velocity= 0.463 m/s. Step 12 step is the final step of our project (about time). It is a pulley. We found that the mechanical advantage was equal to one because even though there our two pulleys in the step, the string only goes through them once. We found both the potential and kinetic energy. We first found the potential energy. The final equation we found with the numbers plugged in was PE= 0.028(10)(0.12). The final answer we found was PE= 0.0336 J. We then found kinetic energy. The equation we found was KE= 1/2(0.028)(2.4)^2. The answer we found was KE= 0.036 J.
Terms: Force: Force is a push or a pull. The formula for force is force = mass x acceleration. Newtons (N) is the unit for force. Below, where the steps are explained, you can see how we used force in our project. Potential Energy: Potential energy is the energy stored in an object due to its position. The formula for potential energy is PE=mass x gravity x height. The unit for potential energy is Joules (J). Essentially potential and kinetic energy equal each other. Below, where the steps are fully explained, you can see how we used potential energy in out project. Kinetic Energy: The kinetic energy of an object is the energy which it possesses due to its motion. The formula for kinetic energy is KE=1/2mv^2. The unit for kinetic energy is Joules (J). Essentially potential and kinetic energy equal each other. Below, where the steps are explained, you can see how we used kinetic energy in our project. Mechanical Advantage: Mechanical advantage is the ratio of the force produced by a machine to the force applied to it. There is no unit for mechanical advantage. There are two types of mechanical advantage, ideal and real. Below, where the steps are explained, you can see how we used mechanical advantage in out project. Reflection: I am actually surprised at how smoothly our project went. We still ran into a ton of problems, but compared to everyone else's ours ran very well. We all got along pretty well and contributed many ideas to the project. For example, Lauren had the idea of using her credit card as a wedge to hold the rubber stopper, Mariana had the idea to use a penguin staircase to get a marble back to a higher elevation, and I had the idea to do everything else.... One thing that i learned about myself was that I'm actually pretty good at preparing for the worst. I feel like if an idea was thrown out there we would get the supplies and some people (Lauren) would try to just glue or nail it down and then want to test it. Every time that happened, I would find a way to test the step and make sure that it works before we made it permanent. Though our machine went pretty well, there still were problems. Mainly things would just stop working. For example, we were at about step 10 in our machine when step 3 decided to stop working. Our original machine for that step was two levers that hit each other and caused a marble to fall and roll across the table to the cup. After a while of no problems the second lever started just throwing the marble towards anywhere except where it was supposed to. After a lot of thinking and crying we decided to rip that step out and change it to a wheel and axle, which worked nicely.