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Projectile Project

This projectiles project was all about finding trajectory and how objects fly. We started off with some background knowledge of the project and the math behind all of the air resistance. For example: V=x(distance) * t(time). To have some practice with these equations, we made mini trebuchets. Most of them turned out to catapults, but that still fits the criteria. We just have to make things fly.

 

I made a 5 foot tall trebuchet that was originally from China. The farthest I have gotten it to launch is about 70 feet. Here are some pictures of what it looks like:

Rube Golberg Project

    In this project, we started with learning some background knowledge such as potential and kinetic energy, and simple machines. Then we got into groups and started to plan out our rubes. I had 8 people in my group, and each person is in charge of 2 steps in the rube. I took a MAJOR leadership role in my group, and since I am amiable (really friendly) it was hard to say no for me to do most of the rube. So, I took the role of making the base, or what we put the steps onto. The final goal for the rube is to apply a band-aid to whatever we want, but it has to stick to it. 

 

 

In the end, our rube did win best structural design, and here is an awkward picture of me getting our trophy. 

 

Test 1: We had some complications, but overall it was better than we expected.

 

Test 2: It was better than the first test, but it still isn't what we would like it to be.

 

Test 3: This was our best run, and we still had to interact with it twice. Also, we hade the car fly off of the track, and that wasn't ideal either. 

...and Now the Video!

Rube Test 1

Rube Test 1
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Rube Test 1

Rube Test 1

00:29
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Rube Test 2

Rube Test 2

00:26
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Rube Test 3

Rube Test 3

00:21
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Rube Golberg Reflection

In our rube, we had to use simple machines such as the pulley, lever, wedge, wheel and axle, inclined plane, and screw. In my Rube Golberg, I used the Pulley, Wedge, and Lever. We, of course, had more, but we used them the most prominent on our rube. You can see them in the video of our rube above. We also had to learn and use physical principles, such as potential energy, kinetic energy, inertia, momentum, and speed. There wasn't a selection of these that was in our rube, they where all in play. We studied potential energy, kinetic energy, and momentum the most out of the physical principals we learned about. 

We were given some points of data, and we had to find the potential and kinetic energy for a certain situation. The ball that we had to find both potential and kinetic energy for was 7 grams and 50 centimeters above a bucket. For potential energy equation, we had to convert 7g to 0.0007kg and 50cm to 0.5m, and this is what we got:

 

Potential Energy Equation:   (0.0007 kg)(9.81m/s squared)(0.5m)=0.0337 Joules

 

Now for the Kinetic energy, we had to find the kinetic energy that is being outputted. We had the conversations from finding the potential, so we just plug them into the equation, (1/2)(kg)(m/s squared), and this is what we got:

 

Kinetic Energy Equation:   (1/2)(0.0007 kg)(0.45 m/s squared)=0.0000459 Joules

 

 

Now on to our personal rube that we made for the competition. We first had to get some background knowledge of the science and physics behind them. For example simple machines, kinetic and potential energy, all of the content that I talked about above. Then we made some miniature rubes out of cardboard and a lot of duck tape. They were only three steps, but they were exceptionally frustrated with the space and materials we had. After that, we got into our groups and started to plan out our final rubes. Each person was responsible for 2 or more steps in the final rube. So at the end, our group had to have a minimum of 16 steps.

 

There were some critical 21st-century skills involved in this project, but I would say that the one I excelled in most was communication. I used this a lot because we had to explain what we were going to do. I took a leadership role in this project, so I was having to check on the progress of the rest of the group to see if we could mount their parts on the backboard. 

 

One of the 21st-century skills that I need to work on is creativity. I am one of those people that just think about what needs to get done to make it work and not worry about what will make it look nice. I usually put that up to other people that are better at creativity than I am. Creativity isn't just about making something look good, it is about making something that is unique and uses new ideas in it to accomplish the same goal. I had trouble with this when I realized that one of my parts wasn't' going to work. I had to rethink my whole idea because one part wasn't working. I had asked for some help, which isn't a bad thing, from my family to figure out what I was going to do because I couldn't think of ways that we could make our rube interesting and different. I did find a way to do this with a little fire. If you look at the video above, you will probably see it. A lot of creativity was used for this project and I would like to get better at it for the future. 

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