G9 engineering project: Develop and Plan
Developing my ideas:
Swinging bottle with the ball:
Based on Newton’s second law of motion, the law of acceleration, I want to show how acceleration causes more g force on the body. Therefore, my idea is to have a bottle with a ping-pong ball on the inside while having the ball strapped to a motor with a string.
Once the motor is started, the bottle should gradually accelerate, causing the ball to experience more g-force, thereby letting it move to the further end of the bottle while swinging. Then when the motor is slowing or reaching the maximum speed, the ball will experience less g-force.
Another interesting way of operating this device is to change the air in the bottle, to water. Then the ping-pong ball would move to the closer end instead of the further end.
Through this device, the user can easily understand how the law of acceleration works. However, with a big swinging bottle, it could be dangerous and not too durable.
Multi-level ball ramp
As shown in this model, this J-shaped ramp has three platforms that are in different levels. The ball will start from the top level, going through the ramp, and launched to the second platform. It repeats this process until it reaches the final level. Through this device, the user can understand the law of conservation and friction, since the height launched cannot reach the initial height no matter what.
A negative of this device is that the ball could be inconsistent in which platform it would land on. It also could be a little difficult to understand without some explanation.
String slide device
This device shows the friction between the rope and the different weights of the objects. As we know from Galileo’s leaning tower of pisa experiment, two object with different weights drop relatively at the same speed. Then, instead of doing so, this device shows the friction between object that can cause it to travel in different speeds.
The user would slide the ball off a rope that is placed diagonally, then the time travelled would be recorded. There would be three different weights, from heaviest to lightest.
The cons of this are that it shows that it isn’t very clear, but other than that it’s fine.
Materials:
Considering that most materials needs to be environmentally friendly or renewable, I decided to choose wood or recycled plastic
Benefits:
- Renewable
- Biodegradable
- Durable
Cons:
- Not smooth
- Heavy
Final project:
After comparing the different ideas, I decided to make the swing bottle with a ping-pong ball device. This is because it was the most interesting, and easy to understand choice.
Sketch #1:
In this model, I’m planning to incorporate the solar panel as the renewable power source of the motor. Using the motor, it will swing the rope around it, the bottle will then be swung around, and the ball should experience more g-force.
Final detailed plan:
