Balance Bot Buddy
By: Kayla German
Materials
2 wood skewers
1 toothpick
1 cork
2 balls plasticine (any clay will do)
2 googly eyes
A little bit of Hot Glue
Hot glue gun
Description of the Balance Bot Buddy
The goal of this project is to get the middle tooth pick to use as the center of gravity to balance to two other toothpicks. The main concepts that this project fulfills his Balance, Center of mass, and Rotation. First you have to get all of the materials together. The balance bot buddies should be able to balance using center of gravity. The project is an easy, creative project that will take only couple minutes and that will only need couple items from the house, or even people would throw some of these items away in the trash. These items can teach kids how to become creative with the surroundings around them. Instead of throwing away that old toothpick--Unused--put it to use with your creativity. Just think of materials around your house, and start to create. Using the center of gravity, it also teaches you about it. The middle toothpick with the cork in it with the face, should be able to balance on your finger with these 2 clay drum sticks hanging off of the bottom portion of your cork.
Materials
Materials--Balance Bot Buddy
2 wood skewers
1 toothpick
1 cork
2 balls plasticine (any clay will do)
2 googly eyes
A little bit of Hot Glue
Hot glue gun
2 skewers
Final product
Cork
Play dough
Cork
Toothpick
Procedures
The first step is to insert the 2 skewers, onto the cork at a downward facing angle, then later play around with the angles
Then with your cork with the 2 skewers facing down, insert the toothpick at the bottom of the cork facing down, with most of it sticking out
Then to each of the sides with the skewers on them, add balls of clay to them. In size, they should be about half the volume size of ping pong balls, they work the best
Then go back and try to balance the toothpick on your finger, to see if the center of gravity is up to par, and see if it balances, if not, keep playing with it
Issues with the Twin Plane
Did not have materials, and would need to go to store to try and find the materials
Research was not an issue
Would be very time consuming, to build, then workout all of the bugs with it
I had looked and looked for the materials, and could not find them
Monday 21, 2015, would not be enough time to build and do all that was needed to do it
Could not build together or get materials over the weekend with christmas
Materials costed a lot money
With the project that I did do, it was all materials around my house
I knew I could do it, without parent supervision
Was easy enough to workout all bugs and build in less than an hour
Was something that included all of the required words, and how it was related to my project
Description of the Twin Plane
The twin plane is made of cycle spoke and items that people might throw in the trash. The twin plane should have a metal line or piece of string that will hold the planes at opposite ends; then we would make a U shape in the top so that way it can spin down the spiral wind stiff wire to get the places spinning and using center of gravity at the same time. Then we would put the rubber stand on the table then you would tightly fix the vertical spiral on the old battery. Then insert the battery into the wire to get battery situated. Then place the 2 planes on the U shaped wire, and attach them to the stiff wire, so that it can go up and down, sliding right through the spiral. The center of gravity, in the U shaped wire, should create a pretty good center of gravity. Both of the planes should be equal in weight, so that one side of the planes are not heavier than the other side, effecting the center of gravity.
The wind stiff wire on the pipe and pull to make the spiral. The spiral spoke is there the make the U shape and putting the 2 planes on each of the side to make it even on each side. The wind stiff wire is attached to the battery, for weight to hold it down. The rubber base is used to put the old battery on, which is attached to the stiff wire. The rubber base is there to help transport it easier.
Materials
MATERIALS-- Twin Plane
Rubber Base
Cycle Spoke
Old Battery Stand
Card Planes
Wind Stiff Wire (make spiral)
Procedures
You would have to grab paper and make a design for an airplane that would stick to wire using hot glue
When you are finished tracing and drawing the airplane then you would have to cut out the plane and hot glue it to the wire to make it look like it is flying
After that you will have to make the top of the wire holding the planes together into a U shape to get it to be able to fly down the spiral wire
You will have to grab the rubber stand and place the battery on top of it
Then make the stiff wire into spiral and place it onto the battery and make sure it is held tight together and not loose
Then place the wire holding the plane onto the spiral wire and release it and it should fly using the center of gravity.
Gravity, Center of Gravity, Balance, Equilibrium
CENTER OF GRAVITY
This activity helped me learn about center of gravity, because it has to be about the same on both sides, and in order for the project to work, you have to have a little bit of a lower center of gravity, so that it is able to balance on your finger. This project may not be one of the hardest out there, but that doesn’t really matter, it taught me a lot about center of gravity. Because on the cork, you can’t put the toothpick on the edge of the cork, it will not balance, you have to put it somewhat close to the center.
GRAVITY
Gravity, can change how something balances in mid air. It can change how it looks, if it is going to be lop sided or not. It can change a whole lot. Gravity, can also change how it can look, or how the overall project could turn out. It doesn’t really seem like it would be something that would do that, but it could.
BALANCE
This project also had helped me learn more about balancing something, and what you have to do to get it to be able to stay and balance correctly. For this Balance Bot project, you had to basically have the same amount on both sides, so that if one side was lighter than the other it did not lean to the heavier side. From starting out with the ones we did in class with the clowns and the eagle and all of that, I knew from the start that weight and balance were key things that helped the project turn out.
EQUILIBRIUM
Equilibrium, is something that relates to your sense of balance, in which, the balance bot needs to balance.