Compound Machine
DeFine The Problem
The purpose of the machine was to move the soda can from point a to point b by applying force to a compound machine. The design had to include at least three different simple machines. This report will show the process on which the machine was designed and made.
A few simple machines we considered were:
-lifting a soda can -drawing a perfect circle -moving a ping pong ball I used a decision matrix to decide which idea we should design and graded the ideas off of how easy they were to build, how original the idea was, and if it was possible under the time constraints. Graded from 1-3, the soda can idea appeared to be the best option. Develop a solution
ConStruct and test prototypeHTTPS://youtu.be/LC1luJoHEpl
Evaluate solutionOur machine included 5 simple machines. Two were first class levers with the fulcrum placed in the middle and the effort force applied equidistant from the resistance force. Both were built the same and had an ideal mechanical advantage of 1. We also included two fixed pulleys. They both had an ideal mechanical advantage of 1 since they had 1 opposing strand in the opposite direction of the resistance force. The last simple machine was a wheel and axle where we applied the effort force for the compound machine. We attached a larger wheel, the driver, and a smaller wheel on the axel. The effort force was applied on the larger wheel to result in a more efficient design. It had an ideal mechanical advantage of 1.4. Our lab experience was slightly stressful since our original designs had to be altered multiple times with a short time constraint. Our original test results were unsuccessful because the amount of weight from the soda can was too small for the amount of effort force being supplied on the other end of the machine. But, after alterations to our design, our test results were successful, lifting our soda can by applying effort force on our machine. One major mistake we made was lifting too little resistance force with too much effort force. Another mistake we made was adding an inclined plane where it gave no additional advantage in our design, it only hindered it. I learned how to construct a compound machine and solve for the overall ideal mechanical advantage, actual mechanical advantage, and efficiency. I also learned how to solve problems related to my design with the help of my group. Some trouble shooting errors we had to make were removing our inclined plane, changing the size of our driving wheel, and changing the weight of our resistance force. Our overall IMA of the design was 1.4. To solve for this i multiplied the IMA of our lever, 1, the IMA of our pulley, 1, and the IMA of our wheel and axel, 1.4. Our overall Actual mechanical advantage was 0.537. We measured our effort force, which was 3.65. Our resistance force was 1.96, since our weight was 200g which we converted to 0.2kg and multiplied by 9.8. To get the actual mechanical advantage we divided 1.96 by 3.65, which was 0.537. Our actual mechanical advantage was less than the ideal mechanical advantage for many reasons. Things like friction weren’t taken into consideration when ideal mechanical advantage is solved so in real life we had to apply more effort.
Present solutionIn the photo, we were attaching our second base plate to the first part of our machine. We already had completed two pulleys and two levers prior to this. After the base plate was attached we had planned on adding a wheel and axel as well as an inclined plane.
At this point in our project, we were attaching an inclined plane to our machine. After testing the design we later had to change it and ended up removing this part of the machine.
At this stage in our project we were on the last part of constructing our machine. Our group was finishing constructing our wheel and axel, the place where we applied our effort force.
This was our final project. We had finished constructing by this point and were running tests.
Conclusion questions1. Our pulley was the easiest machine to solve for the mechanical advantage. This was because all we had to do was look to see that only one string opposed the resistance force. Also, fixed pulleys only have an IMA of one.
2. The wheel and axel was the most difficult machine to solve for the mechanical advantage. This was because we had to measure the diameter of the both wheel and divide the driving wheel’s diameter by the smaller wheel’s diameter. 3. To make our machine more efficient we could make the driving wheel of our wheel and axel larger. With a larger diameter, the mechanical advantage will be higher. |
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