Marshmallow Catapult Essay
A Fabulous Failure
Introduction:
This experiment was conducted in order to test our knowledge of simple machines, and how we are able to pair them together to successfully attack a simple task. We failed miserably. Whilst we have a mild understanding of the six simple machines and their purposes, our delivery wasn’t as effective as we had hoped it would be. The overall process was full of trials and tribulations. We had to witness the forces that could possibly work against our machine, such as air resistance. Air resistance is such a difficult thing to overcome since it’s nearly impossible, I mean, I can’t get rid of wind. Gravity also played a monumental part in the experiment. It weighed down on the marshmallow, causing it to fall eventually and sadly not allow it to soar for a good 60 inches as we’d hoped for. These two forces completely appose motion, making it difficult for us to get this experiment done.
We figured that if we found materials that were stronger and better reinforced, then we would be able to fling the marshmallow effectively. We proceeded to construct a strong base, and a better “sling-shot” like device per-say. See sketch 1, page 4. It worked better than the first, but was still not as good as we hoped it would be. However, we did not fret for it was the final day of building and it was the best we could’ve hoped for. We watched as other machines had their marshmallows soar, whilst ours flew a pitiful average of 36 inches. See graph 1, page 5. It wasn’t as terrible as others I suppose, but I had yet to witness a catapult that flew a shorter distance then ours.
The experiment didn’t necessarily have a set up. We had a measuring tape, and it was required that we shoot our marshmallows from the ground. It resulted in a bit of difficulty at first as we watched our marshmallows skid across the tile, whilst we argued over which square it landed on. We usually picked the farthest one possible, considering our catapult wasn’t exactly up
Introduction:
This experiment was conducted in order to test our knowledge of simple machines, and how we are able to pair them together to successfully attack a simple task. We failed miserably. Whilst we have a mild understanding of the six simple machines and their purposes, our delivery wasn’t as effective as we had hoped it would be. The overall process was full of trials and tribulations. We had to witness the forces that could possibly work against our machine, such as air resistance. Air resistance is such a difficult thing to overcome since it’s nearly impossible, I mean, I can’t get rid of wind. Gravity also played a monumental part in the experiment. It weighed down on the marshmallow, causing it to fall eventually and sadly not allow it to soar for a good 60 inches as we’d hoped for. These two forces completely appose motion, making it difficult for us to get this experiment done.
We figured that if we found materials that were stronger and better reinforced, then we would be able to fling the marshmallow effectively. We proceeded to construct a strong base, and a better “sling-shot” like device per-say. See sketch 1, page 4. It worked better than the first, but was still not as good as we hoped it would be. However, we did not fret for it was the final day of building and it was the best we could’ve hoped for. We watched as other machines had their marshmallows soar, whilst ours flew a pitiful average of 36 inches. See graph 1, page 5. It wasn’t as terrible as others I suppose, but I had yet to witness a catapult that flew a shorter distance then ours.
The experiment didn’t necessarily have a set up. We had a measuring tape, and it was required that we shoot our marshmallows from the ground. It resulted in a bit of difficulty at first as we watched our marshmallows skid across the tile, whilst we argued over which square it landed on. We usually picked the farthest one possible, considering our catapult wasn’t exactly up