Tuesday, february 9th, 2016
Conversation heart catapults
Click the photo for complete instructions.
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Celebrate Valentines Day with Mrs. Trimble.
Test your engineering skills by building a catapult out of popsicle sticks and rubber bands. Use your catapult to shoot conversation hearts at a given target. Modify your catapult to get better results. The science behind it
"The catapult is a simple machine – a mechanical device used to change the direction or magnitude of a force. The catapult is an example of a lever type simple machine in which a beam or arm pivots at a fixed point called the fulcrum.
In the catapult we built, as we pressed down on the arm, tension was building and energy was being stored. Energy that is stored when a material is compressed {think of a spring} or stretched {a slingshot} is called elastic energy. When you release the arm of the catapult, the elastic energy is converted into kinetic energy – the energy of motion. When you place an object like the conversation heart in the bucket, the heart will move at the same speed as the arm and the bucket. When the arm stops, the heart projectile continues to move forward due to Newton’s first law, which states that an object in motion, stays in motion. The heart becomes airborne. Gravity pulls the heart back toward the ground, giving the candy its trajectory, or path." Taken from thestemlaboratory.com |