Week 20 Reflection

This week in physics we tested and revealed four final result of the catapult projects. I have to say, this was the project so far that I personally enjoyed the most. However, I wasn't so clear on the catapult subject and accidentally made a sling shot (oops!) and had to go back and reconstruct it into an actual catapult. I felt that the project was difficult, as the marshmallow had to complete the distance of exactly three meters and had to land in the bucket. The overall project wasn't that difficult, but the distance limit proved to be an obstacle for me.

I constructed my marshmallow catapult mainly of wood with a rectangular base. It had two wooden pillars with springs connected to them. The springs then connected to a wooden arm that pivoted with the force of the spring. At the end of the wooden arm, there was a shaving cream cap that served as the resting spot for the marshmallow before being launched. A requirement for the project was that there had to be a mechanic for the catapult to be triggered; it could not be merely pulled back and released. I used a screw diver in between two o-rings above the arm board to set the marshmallow in motion. However, the distance depended upon how fast you released the screw diver and where you placed it across the board. This was another obstacle standing in between my marshmallow and the victorious bucket.

On my fourth try, my marshmallow want in the bucket and I then had to calculate its acceleration, force, and velocity from its distance and hang time. The picture below shows how they were calculated.

We also began our new unit, gravitational motion, on Wednesday and worked with it again today (Friday). I discovered that satellites must be launched with a certain velocity in order for them to orbit the earth and it stays up in motion due to both its inertia and the gravitational pull acting upon it. Its inertia pulls the satellite outwards, but the Earth's gravitational force pulls it back it. The balance between the pull and the inertia keeps the satellite orbiting in space.

More to learn with the new unit, but I'll get there! :)