Electromagnetic Speaker
This speaker uses an electromagnet to power it. In the base, there are 2 magnets, then connected to a coil of copper wire. When sound is sent through the chord and into the speaker, that interacts with the magnetic field. When that interactions occurs, there is a vibration sent through the cone, which is perceived as sound. This all relates to electricity and magnetism. A magnetic field is created by moving electricity. That electric charge movement creates an electric current. In my speaker, the electric current flows through the copper wire, and when it reaches the magnets, it is able to charge them, making them electromagnets.
Homemade Battery
This battery uses three key ingredients: Copper, Aluminum, and salt water. The aluminum wire is a cathode, it gives away it's electrons. The copper wire is an anode, so it takes electrons. The salt water is an electrolyte, so it allows the electrons to flow between each metal, creating charge. This particular battery created 1.10 volts of charge, as shown by the voltage meter.
Rube Goldberg Machine Project
The essential questions for this project were
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How can the mechanical advantage of simple machines be compounded to perform a simple task in a laborious way?
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How can a satirical story be told by a complex machine?
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What is the purpose of satire, and how can it be used to communicate serious messages?
For this project, we worked to create our own Rube Goldberg Machines with a satirical element.
Final Product:
Reflection
Conservation of energy is the change in an object's energy from potential to kinetic. This is when an object goes from holding in its energy, to actually beginning to move. This is visible in my rube goldberg in my ramp. In the beginning, the balls have potential energy, until they go down the ramp and spiral, using kinetic energy, then finally stop moving and once again are filled with potential energy. Energy transfer is when an energy system is relocated to another. This is visible in my rube goldberg when I drop the book. Potential energy turns into kinetic and sound energy.
There are six simple machines. Screw, wedge, wheel and axle, inclined plane, pulleys, and levers. Simple machines are everyday objects that make our lives easier. We use them to complete tasks that would otherwise create way too much energy. Each simple machine is visible in my rube goldberg machine. First, you can see a lever which represents the power change from the 2016 election. Then, a ball is launched into a basket, which acts as a pulley, pulling up a wedge on the other side.This represents a rise in white supremacy. This lets out balls to roll down the inclined plane and into a screw. This is also a 720 degree spiral challenge step. I used this step because it fit into my satire. The spiral represents a slow downfall throughout the last four years. This challenge step also allowed me to use the most creativity and problem solving skills.
My number one takeaway from this project was a lot of preservation skills. I struggled a lot to get this project done. It was very stressful and a lot of my initial ideas didn’t work the way that I hoped. This could be very discouraging, but I took the opportunity to work on persevering. My biggest challenge was putting my entire machine together. I had built each individual step, but when they didn’t work in sequence, I had to improvise. My spiral had been to big, so I had to cut it down to the right size, but that made the spiral not start in the right place. I ended up having to work on a new spiral entirely. My biggest strength in this project was problem solving. Every time that something went wrong or didn’t work, I sat down, and I changed my plan. This is also visible in my pulley. I had to set up and take down my pulley many times before it would finally work.
Photograph of Physics
The essential question of this project is “ What is the nature of light? What is the nature of a photograph? How is the study of optics relevant today. For this project, we studied these key concepts, and then took a photograph demonstrating an optics concept.
Final Product:
My photograph is a demonstration of reflection. As you can see, the mountains have been reflected into the lake. This happens because as light reaches the new medium, going from the air to the water, it is mirrored off of the water, creating a second image. When light hits a smooth surface such as water, depending on how perfect the water is (meaning clarity and lack of ripples), the image will bounce back and the exact same angle it was reflected in.
Reflection
I feel that I had a lot of success in understanding the concepts of physics that we learned. Although at first, it was difficult to grasp, with a lot of time and effort, I soon began to understand and interpret the concepts of light. One good example of this is when we first learned about reflection. The first lesson we had we used a mirror to draw lines of reflection. I struggled with this for most of the class period, but by the end, I had figured it out. This really helped me to take a beautiful picture of physics. I actually took multiple pictures, trying to represent many different phenomena, but ultimately decided that my picture of reflection was the best presentation of beautiful work.
I struggled greatly with the online labs that we used to learn this year. A lot of the time, I couldn’t figure out the directions of the lab, and didn’t have the ideal spaces and materials to properly execute a lab. In the end, I used my best critical thinking skills to decipher and even modify the labs to fit what I needed. One of our first labs, we made bubbles. I didn’t have glycerin to use, and also had no way to blow bubbles. I ended up making a bubble wand out of things I had lying around my house, and used corn starch instead of glycerin. This experience taught me how to be self sufficient, and how to study and work in ways that were much different than anything I have ever done before.
The thing that I took away from this most is definitely a deeper understanding of the world around me. I have learned so much about how the world works, and how I am able to see it. This just struck me and I think that it has answered a lot of questions I have or may have in the future. You can see this in my photograph description. I feel that I was able to analyze my image, and explain the physics behind it in a very good way. I have learned so much about how these concepts work, that it was easy for me to write that description.
I grew in a lot of important ways, but the most important must be my ability to read and execute a lab entirely on my own. By doing this, I have learned how to read a lab much better, and how to create an environment in which an experiment can take place. This will help me in the future when I do more difficult experiments, in person or not. I will be able to conduct, analyze, and explain a lab much easier than ever before.
I think that I have done an excellent job with this project overall. Through all of the unique challenges that this year have thrown, I was still able to make a final product I am proud of. I also feel that I have learned so much, and truly internalized the content. This shows a level of understanding and critical thinking that I feel was sufficient for this project.