• Show your final product through photos and/or video.

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Video Player
  • Explain how it works/doesn’t work using scientific terminology

Newton’s cradle is a device designed by a French physicist named Edme Mariotte and named after an English mathematician called Issac Newton. It is a device that demonstrates the conservation of momentum. The Conservation of Momentum states that when two objects collide, the total momentum of the objects before the collision is equal to the total momentum of the objects after the collision. Therefore, “when the first ball of Newton’s Cradle collides with the second, the first ball stops, but its momentum is not lost, just transferred to the second ball, then the third, then the fourth, until it reaches the very last ball.” You can see this conservation of momentum as the last ball swings into the air with nearly the same momentum as the first ball. Thus, if two marbles are lifted into the air on one end and released, then two balls on the opposite end will swing in response. This continuous clicking ball is also proof of Newton’s law of the conservation of energy, which claims that energy can’t be created nor destroyed but that it can change forms. The cradle converts the potential energy of one ball into kinetic energy that is transferred down the line of balls and ultimately results in the upward swinging of the ball.

  • Explain the areas you were successful in the product/process

I was overall successful in making Newton’s cradle because I was able to swing and click the spheres. Newton’s cradle is a challenging device because if the measurements aren’t precise, the marbles do not click. However, I managed to calculate and successfully make the cradle work.

  • Explain the areas you need to improve in the product/process

I would like to improve the accuracy of the product because the measurements were a bit off, and the toy did not work as well as I expected. The lengths between the marbles had to be the same, but mine was not. Some were glued 3cm apart, while other marbles were glued 5cm apart. Therefore, the marbles did not move well. Another improvement is the thickness of the string. Mr. Hussack later advised that thin threads (or wires) help the spheres click better because they take less energy. If I have another design task later, I will use a very thin wire.

  • Explain the impact of this project on the environment and the potential client/consumer/audience.

This toy has a tiny bit of impact on the environment because it is environmentally friendly. I re-used waste materials when making the toy. All of the woodblocks were in the waste box, so I had to cut them into different shapes to use them. The strings and marbles were already at school, so I did not create extra waste. I am unsure if this would work, but I can also substitute metal marbles with round materials like round rubber balls (bouncy balls?) to prevent extra waste.

  • Overall Reflection

I really enjoyed this engineering assignment because this was a new challenge for me. As a person who does not enjoy science very much, designing a toy and learning from it was more effective. I learned new techniques, theorems, and solutions throughout this task. Overall, I was very successful in this class; however, I can improve on time management since I wasted some time, in the beginning, finding useless materials and designing a backup plan. I can achieve this by having more thorough, detailed design plans and backup plans in case the initial plan does not work.