Second Meeting (Monday, January 31)

1st design: Wheel and axle and Pulley

 

What we constructed

2nd design: Lever and Pulley

    This second meeting was all about setting the machine up. We tried to construct the machine according to our plan, but we quickly ran into many problems.
    The wheel and axle was not secured to the frame (it hung by a single piece of string), so it kept tilting to one way or the other. Because of this, we couldn't hang the 600g weight off of it. Also, we found out that the block and tackle pulley had only one end of the string coming out of it, which was unexpected; we couldn't build our machine without the two ends coming out because we needed a place to put our input weight, so we had to improvise.
    After experimenting and running several trials, we found out that the block and tackle pulley had to be flipped to be upside down. This made our plan run smoother than before, but the problem with the wheel and axle still existed, because the 600g weight was unbalanced and we couldn't think of anything that would hold it up in mid-air. Above is a picture of the failed attempt and design.
    There were too many problems with this design, so we decided to change it. Our new plan was to use a lever and a pulley. Attached is a picture of the modified design. We plan to use hang the input weight off of the block and tackle pulley which will weigh down one end of the lever, which would bring the 600g weight that is connected to the other end of the lever, upward.
    Although we set up our original plan fairly well, we found out that actually building the machine and seeing it work is different from seeing the design on paper. Next time, we plan to create the new design and see what happens.