EF 151 Energy Conversion Project

Team C1-9 Jacob Swafford Joey Beard Kyle Leffel

December 6, 2006 Project Overview

The purpose of our project was to show that a simple device can use several energy conversions to perform the simple task of turning on a light switch. Our device starts out by using a spring to convert elastic potential energy to kinetic energy by giving a ball potential energy an initial velocity. The ball then rolls down ramp where it just has kinetic energy and then it climbs an incline where it has kinetic and potential energy and finally goes off a jump into a funnel which drops the ball on top of a mouse trap which turns on a light switch.

Design Process

We came up with our design by first discussing many different materials that we could use to complete our task. We initially decided that we wanted to incorporate a Hot

Wheels track, a spring launcher, and a ball into the project. From there we conversed about having our ball going off a ramp and landing on a lever which turns on a light switch. We threw this idea out because it would require the ball to have a very accurate trajectory just to land on the lever, and because the weight required to turn on a light switch would be hard to obtain by just using a ball. We then decided to throw out the lever and to incorporate a funnel and a mousetrap into the project. We ran into several complications with the funnel dropping the ball on the trap’s switch. The funnel had to be set at exactly the right angle to make the ball “swirl around” and drop directly onto the mousetrap’s lever. We also had several problems with our spring launcher. Initially the gun that contained the launcher worked very well and shot the ball at about the same speed for every trial that we ran. The gun then started shooting the ball very poorly and we had to completely take apart the gun and re-work the spring mechanism.

What We Built

The device that we actually built involves five feet of Hot Wheels track, some common scrap wood, a common funnel, a mouse trap, and a mouse ball. We elevated the initial starting point of the track twenty-one inches and created a decreasing curvature with the track. To give the ball an initial velocity we used a dart gun with a spring launcher and modified the launching mechanism. The ball is started moving, and then goes off a jump that is approximately five inches tall. We then used the funnel to catch the ball after it completes the jump and to guide it onto the mousetrap lever. When the mousetrap is set off, the “neck-snapper” turns on the light switch and occasionally gets lucky and catches the ball. Cost

Product Cost ($) Scrap wood 0.00 Hot Wheels Track 11.95 Funnel 1.95 Mousetrap 0.95 Light Switch 1.19 Toy gun (spring) 0.88 Craft wood 2.95 Nails 0.00 Duct Tape 0.00 String 0.00 Wood Glue 0.00 Mouse ball 0.00 Total 19.87

All products with no cost were brought from home or found in Estabrook 13. Energy Conversions

Conclusions

As we worked on our project, we made several observations and conclusions. We decided that a simple project that worked a high percentage of the time would be better to make than working on an elaborate design that would work only one out of five times.

From this, we came up with a simple design and it worked almost every time. We encountered several problems in building the project, but we found a way to get around all of them by working as a team and thinking together. Our group worked well together and this made the project much easier and much more enjoyable to work on.

If we were going to change something about our project, we would have used our light switch to actually turn on a light. This would create some more energy changes, which we are not able to calculate yet, but it would add some excitement to the project.

Overall we would consider the project as a success and a fun part of EF151. It was an enjoyable way to learn about energy conversions and to have a chance to work with a team to conquer a problem. References

Fishbane, Paul M., Stephen G. Gasiorowicz, and Stephen T. Thornton. “Physics for

Scientists and Engineers.” Pearsons Education Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ.