Taylor Dale's Build it
The Snail Blazer
Connections to the K-6 Science Curriculum:
1.P.1.3 Predict the effect of a given force on the motion of an object, including balanced forces.
3.P.1.1 Infer changes in speed or direction resulting from forces acting on an object.
3.P.1.3 Explain the effect of earth’s gravity on the motion of any object on or near the earth.
3.P.3.1 Recognize that energy can be transferred from one object to another by rubbing them against each other.
5.P.1.1 Explain how factors such as gravity, friction, and change in mass affect the motion of objects.
5.P.1.2 Infer the motion of objects in terms of how far they travel in a certain amount of time and the direction in which they travel.
Supplies used for this project:
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Peg board (2' x 2')
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Various sizes of rubber bands
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Wingnuts
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3" carriage bolts
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Nuts
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Ping Pong Balls
The assignment was to create a "slow coaster" to get a ping pong ball from the top of the peg board shown below to the bottom trying to make it go as slowly as possible without it stopping. You will have a 2' by 2' peg board, various sizes and thickness of rubber bands, 3" carriage bolts and nuts to put on the peg board to attach the rubber bands to as shown below to the right, and of course a ping pong ball!
Connections to science:
There are several components to why the Snail Blazer goes so slow. Four of those are inertia, friction and gravity, and unbalanced forces (which is why it changed movement.)
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Inertia is the stubbornness of an object to stop doing what it is doing. The one and only thing that will stop an object from doing what it is already doing is an unbalanced force. An unbalanced force is something that changes somethings perpetual pathway. The two unbalanced forces in the snail blazer were friction and gravity.
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Friction and gravity are the two key forces that create the change in movement from its beginning path of inertia. When watching the video you will be able to see that the ball starts to gain speed when it is going down the slope of the rubber band. The ball will continue to go forward until the force of gravity with the assistance of friction become more than that of the ball and will drop the ball to another rubber band path. Because these forces are very strong and powerful they take over and start the cycle over again repeating until there is no more rubber band paths left. use the forces of gravity and friction are so great, the ball then changes direction, begins to speed up and start the cycle all over again.
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One thing that we incorporated into our slow coaster that stood out from the others is knots. We knotted rubber bands together to slow down the ball. The knots do not slow it down completely, but it does create a sort of "speed bump" for the ball to go over.
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All of these factors contribute to why the ping pong ball took 33 seconds to compete the snail blazer!
Average Ball Speed:
total distance traveled (cm) ____ 440cm ____
_______________________ ____ _______ ____ 13.3 sec/cm
total time (seconds) 33.1 seconds
Watch the Snail Blazer in action!
Connection to math:
The "slow coaster" involves math when calculating the ball speed/ distance and when calculating the slope.