Define and Inquire

1. What problems or needs can you identify that could be addressed with this kind of design?
Entertainment
energy capture & storage
education
safety

2. What else problems
Designing a product that would transfer energy and be educative and entertaining at the same time.

3. Marketing issues
Product would be mainly aimed at children’s boys under age 10 above 4 because I currently can’t make entertainment involving energy transfer that can entertain teenagers with the current materials we have in the lab, and I’m not sure what young girls like as entertainment except dolls for which I don’t have an idea of how to involve any form of energy transformation mechanisms in it

4. What energy transfer is?
Energy exists in many forms such as thermal energy, radiant energy, chemical energy, nuclear energy, electrical energy, motion energy, sound energy, elastic energy, and gravitational energy. Energy transfer is when one form of energy transfers into another form of energy, for example transferring from potential energy into kinetic energy, etc.

5. Precedents

1. Rubber band boat

Rubber band boat is a good example of a toy that transfers energy because it transfers energy from potential energy (energy stored in the rubber band) into spinning the paddle which is basically kinetic energy, and the transfer is very simple it just uses rubber band to store energy and then release it into spinning the paddle causing the boat to move. I could use the way it stores energy in rubber bands on my own design because it is easy to do and effective and it is a very good way of showing potential energy.

2. Pull back toy car

How this car works is that when you pull the car back and release it the car would lurch forward. These toy cars use a pullback mechanism, basically when you pull the car back the wheels turning backwards would turn a gear train which contains five gears, the ending gear is connected to a twisted piece of metal called a torsion spring, the more you twist it the tighter it gets and the more energy is stored in it, and when you let go the spring quickly unwinds and goes back to its original state, turning the gear which sends kinetic energy back through the gear chain onto the wheels, sending the car forward. Something I like about this is that while it is a simple mechanism it transfers way more energy than the boat, transferring kinetic energy to mechanical energy to elastic energy and back into mechanical energy to kinetic energy. And I could use the gear chain and the torsion spring in my own design.

3. science
newtons cradle
is a sort of toy that demonstrates momentum and conservation of energy with spheres, when a sphere hits another sphere, the energy would be transferred through the sphere and into another, and finally acts on the last sphere on the other side, sending it up, and when it comes down it would send the energy back towards the first sphere. Good thing is that it had good education level without taking out the entertainment level.

4. hand-crank flashlight
when you cranked the lever on this kind of flashlight it would store the mechanical energy of the turning lever and converts it to electrical energy. And charge for later use. I Like how it uses the motor that can change your own energy working on cranking the lever which produces the mechanical energy and stores it as electrical energy. Could use the idea of cranking something to produce mechanical energy.

5. Solar panels
Solar panels convert the solar energy from sunlight into electrical energy, and could be used as a power source for a city, or cars, boat, etc. what could be useful is that as far as I know we have small solar panels in the supplies we have in our lab so I think I would be able to use the solar panels on my design if I could work out the circuits.