Simple Machines

Simple Machines



 

                        Wheel & Axle
                      Zach & Finbarr

                          Lever
                     Ian & Finbarr 

 

 Inclinede Plane Ian & Zach
                

                           Pulley

                  Zach, Ian & Finbarr

 

               We made simple machines to test for a specific mechanical advantage assigned by Mr.Atkins.  The ideal mechanical advantage for the Wheel and Axle, Inclined plane, and Lever was 6; and the ideal mechanical advantage for the pulley was 2.  The way we test for the mechanical advantage was using a box of nails as a weight for the Lever, inclined plane and pulley, then using the spring scale to get the measurement of the input force for all the machine. 

 

               When we tested the machines against the other groups we tied for 3rd in the Wheel &Axle with 69.99% efficiency, then we tied for 3rd again in the Inclined Plane with 36.5% efficiency, next we tied for first in the Lever having a mechanical advantage of 73% efficiency, finally our pulley got 4th with 73% efficiency.  It was hard to pick a winner because of all the disqualifications of the other groups machines, but if it was up to me, I believe my group won considering we were not disqualified and we placed top 3, 3 times out of the four machines.

 

               For the results my group did not get 100% efficiency in any of our machines because we were a little off on the measurements of our machines which changed the mechanical advantage drastically.  When our machines tested they function well but not well enough to hit 100% efficiency.  We could have changed the measurements of the wood we used mainly for the wheel & axle because the circle we cut out originally was way to big, so we had to cut out a last second circle which wasn't the  exact measurement we needed to get 100% efficiency in the wheel & axle.