For our time period, we chose Aztec 1511. We represented this by drawing the Sun God on our trebuchet. My biggest strength in this project was critical thinking. During the project, I came up with multiple ideas, including the extension of the arm, and the stopping of it while it swings. However, my collaboration was quite weak. Whenever I wasn't working alone, I was simply doing nothing.
|
This project was about building a rube goldberg machine, in which a series of steps is used to progress a flow of energy, to put it scientifically. This rube demonstrated a pulley system, an incline plain, and a lever. The pulley system is when the ball swings on the rope and pulls on it, causing the contraption to slide down the zipline. The incline plain is simply when the ball rolls down a slope, and the lever system is when the dominoes are knocked over. This demonstrated the principles of potential energy, by having the ball being ready to fall of a ledge, kinetic energy from rolling down a slope, and momentum, by rolling fast enough off a slope to knock over dominoes. Say, to start my rube, I drop a 7 gram steel ball 50 centimeters into a tiny bucket on a pulley system, and I would want to measure the potential energy. To figure this out, I would multiply mass, height, and gravity. I would convert the weight into 0.007 kilograms, and the height into 0.5 meters. The force of gravity is already 9.81 m/s squared, so the problem would be 0.007✕0.5✕9.81, so the answer would be 0.0343 Joules of potential energy. To calculate the kinetic energy of the ball falling, The equation would be KE=1/2 m(v²). (M= Mass V= Velocity). KE = (1/2)(0.007kg)(0.45m/s²) = 0.00070875 Joules. When ceating the rube, I would make one section at a time. My part was just two bridge structures, so I would use the leftovers from the first bridge to make the second. During this project, I think I really exhibited was Critical Thinking. Towards the end of our rube, the machine needed to loop back around to the very top to activate a zipline. When our group was stumped, I came up with the idea to have a tight rope holding the zipline in place, stretching from the zipline itself down to the step at the very bottom. The ball would hit the rope, and dislodge it, meaning nothing is holding the zipline and it activates. I think this project really improved my communication skills as well. It made me realize that I needed to start communicating with my group members, something I was shy to do, so when I started pushing myself to try and communicate ideas to my group members (it was harder than it sounds), it started to come naturally to me, and eventually, I was able to communicate ideas without fear of sounding dumb or ignorant.
|