Published on Sep 16, 2023
The objective: Our project is to make an easier way to throw loads of garbage in the recycling bin. A car is going to go down a track with a bin attached on to it by a hinge. Then it will hit something to stop it and the garbage in the bucket will pour out in to the recycling bin. That is how The Recyceler works
Our project is called the Recycler. It is supposed to throw a piece of trash in the recycling bin. It works because a car with a hinge attached to it is connected on the car, so when the car drives down the track it can hit something to stop it and the hinge is going to make the garbage fall in the recycling bin. This is our machine and how it works.
We are making the Recycler it is going to contain 2 simple machines, inclined plane, lever and a wheel and axle. We will be working against the forces of gravity and friction. The reason why we are making this machine is because it can help us throw large amounts of stuff in the recycling bin. We will talk more about this in our next paragraphs. One of the forces that our compound machine will use to its advantage is gravity. Gravity is the force that attracts a body toward the center of the earth, or toward any other physical body having mass. We will use gravity to make a car stay on the track. We also use gravity to make the garbage fall in the garbage can.
An inclined plane is a slope it works against gravity because the object has to go up the inclined plane or down the inclined plane. It’s mechanical advantage is that it makes it easier bringing objects up hill. It is used when something needs to be moved. It reduces work because you can drag it up or down the inclined plane. Inclined planes are sometimes used at loading areas, docks and airports. Some inclined planes are built on to a building for example a wheelchair ramp is built in to building such as our school.
One of the simple machines in our project is the lever. It lets the basket on top of the car move and not stay in one place. A lever is a machine consisting of a beam or rigid rod pivoted at a fixed hinge, or fulcrum.
Friction is a force which happens when something rubs against another thing that causes friction. If friction did not exist some scientist say that if a ball were to be rolled it would never stop unless another force reacted to it. Friction can be a useful force and a force you don’t want, for example in hockey you want to go really fast so you don’t want friction but also in hockey you need friction because you have to be able to stop.Now for the wheel and axle!
The wheel and axle is one of six simple machines. The wheel and axle is generally considered to be a wheel attached to an axle so that these two parts rotate together in which a force is transferred from one to the other. It looks like a wheel on a car which it is functioning as. In our project the car has a wheel and axle for the wheel of the car. We have learned about gravity, inclined planes, friction, and gears, wow thats a lot.
We want to make a car that knocks garbage in to the garbage bin.
We were going to make a marble track that would make a marble hit a sheet of tinfoil which would make a car drive down a different track. The car would hit a gear to knock the garbage in to the bin.
Wood boards, wood sticks, wood glue, wheels, hinge, bucket and duct-tape.
1. Gather materials
2. Take the wheels
3. Put the wheels on the small board
4. Make an open box with the small wood boards
5. Attach a hinge to the end of the car
6. Attach a bucket at the other end of the hinge
7. Take the big wood board
8. Lay it down
9. Measure the car wheels to glue down the sticks
10. Glue the wood sticks to the board
11. After, put a recycling bin at the end of the track
The Recycler was successful! It went down the track and at the end the string got pulled and the garbage fell in the garbage it worked exactly how we wanted it too. The recycler stayed on the track with gravity and still went down the track even working against friction. The Recycler zoomed down the track and at the end it dumped all of the garbage into the garbage bin. The Recycler worked in the end it was amazing.
Our project took a lot of time and a lot of thinking we also made many changes. It started with a simple diagram of the car hitting dominoes hitting paper onto sand paper and the car rolling over it. Than it hit a gear and spun garbage into a bin, that did not happen, or work. Right now our project is a wooden car that goes down a ramp and flings garbage off of it. Our question was how are we going to get the car to go down the track and make it to dump. We thought and thought and after about three periods of changing we got it! We will place the bucket on a hinge than tie a string to the end of the bucket to flip it, We tied the string to the end of the track so when it rolled down the track it eventually reached it's limits and dumped. Now you know that it was a very hard and painful process of making our compound machine!
Wikipedia Wikipedia contributors. "Simple Machines." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 27 Feb. 2014. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.