NICK ELMS
PLTW- PoE Projects
 Full MachineA view displaying our finished project. |
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 Back/ WinchA picture allowing for a closer viewing of the winch that pulls the weight up the ramp. |
Winch Design Project
In this project two classmates and myself were tasked with designing a winch system cabable of lifting as much weight as possible six inches upwards. We decided to build an inclined plane that measured about 3 feet. Then, using VEX equipment, we built a simple winch with a string that would attach to the weight and a axel, that was powered by a motor. Our system was able to lift 27.5 pounds, a sum that earned us second place in the class.
Rube Goldberg Machine
You may be wondering, what exactally is a Rube Goldberg Machine? Basically, it is a machine designed to perform a simple task in a complex way. Each small group in our class created several small portions of the machine. My group created a ramp that would guide a ball down into lined up dominos, then the last domino would fall, causing marbles to be released from a suspended funnel, into a bucket on a class one lever, which taped a gear and turning it, which would push a ball foward into a truck, and the next group's portion. Finally, we put all the pieces together and tested it. Two words can sum it up. Crash. Boom. Not everything worked, but we were able to achieve the task we set the machine up to do, start a pizza oven, with a little human assistance. Attached is a video of our project in action.