Free Body Diagrams

We created force diagrams of different pictures. Some of the forces were applied force, tension force, force of gravity, and normal force.

CENTROIDS

Beam Deflection Lab

Marks attempt

My team members were Connor, Lauren, Conner, Quinn, and Mark. Using a 2x4, a few phone books and magazines, and a measuring tape we would use beam deflection to try to calculate the weight of a group member.

Conner L's attempt

I was amazed at how accurate it was.

We finished part II of the centroids packet today with our table groups. Connor, Lauren, Conner, Quinn, and Mark were in my group.

The first part was to make a complex shape out of a manila folder or some foam board

Sadly part of our shape was cut out of the picture

Then using a thumb tack, sheet of foam board and plumb bob made out of string and a roll of tap

The process of drawing lines where the string hung in front of our shape

We finished drawing lines from all of the corners using the plumb bob

This is the first side we tried

Turned out our approximated centroid location was off so we tried again

We redid the lines on the other side

This time we made a little bigger holes to allow more free movement

Our new approximated location for the centroid was much more accurate

Using a finger on the centroid we could balance the foam board shape

Mouse Trap Race Car

Using the knowledge we attained in class,  Connor and I made a car using a mouse trap as the cars main source of movement. Here is the criteria and constraints: 

Criteria:
Design, build and compete with a Mousetrap Race car (A "car" uses at least two axles).
Maintain a clean work space.

Constraints:
One mousetrap
No more than 12" of masking tape
Fischertechnique robotics parts
No more than 24" of string
All materials used must travel with your vehicle
You must work through the stages of the event (see Achievements below)
Additional materials by Instructor approval

I am claiming 3 achievements. 

1. "Visualize it"- Connor and I sketched what we wanted our car to look like and how we would incorporate the mouse trap to make it as efficient as possible. 

2. "Re-Work"- After Connor and I made our car we improved it by increasing the overall distance that the mouse trap covered with it's action arm. We did this by attaching a pole onto the action arm and then tying the string to the top of that.

3. "Leave it cleaner than you found it"- Immediately after the races we dismantled our car and put all the pieces in the correct places. We trashed unused tape and string.

We forgot to take pictures to document our process.