Tuesday, April 15, 2014

The Egg Drop Project

Introduction to the project: for this project we had to make a contraption that would protect an egg when it was dropped from a specific height. for the  first drop we had specific materials that we had to use, for the second drop we could use any materials as long as it was under a specific weight an size.

Technical Concepts:we had a couple things to consider when designing our contraptions is how will the egg be stopped so that the force docent break. we tried to slow the egg down so that when it hit it would be as soft of a landing as possible.


Learning Goals :One of the learning goals was to learn the design process and the other is learning the relationship between force and acceleration and how they are related and affected by each other. 


Design Brief Mini Drop: our design for the mini drop was to have a padding under the egg to absorb some of the impact when it hit the ground. it had a small parachute to slow the egg down before it hit the ground. lastly it had rubber bands that held the egg in place. 



Design Brief Big Drop: For the big drop he had a cup that had padding all around the sides and marsh mellows at the bottom to absorb the fall on the sides were wings that when dropped spun and slowed down the egg before it hit the ground so it would have a soft landing. Finally we had rubber bands holding the egg in the cup. 



Positive Feedback: i liked this assignment because it helped me understand the design process and it was a good way to get thinking about different way that problems can be solved.

Redesign:If i were to do this assignment again instead of having marsh mellows at the bottom of the cup i would put something more soft there because while they were soft at the beginning they became stale and hard by the end.


Technological Resources: we used the given materials for the first drop and the ones that we brought for the second we also used the hot glue guns in the second to keep everything together. we also looked up on the internet what we wanted for ideas.


Biggest Challenges: the biggest challenge for me was getting my idea to work because you may think of something working one way and it works in a completely different way than you think. 


What I Learned: i learned how to use the design process to fix a problem and i learned how  to make my ideas work to the project.

What is Technology

Technology- Human made products and or processes that extend human potential and satisfy human needs.

Three areas of technology are:
-Physical
-Informational/Communication
-Bio-Related

One system is Input->process->output->Feedback->Input the feedback could also go back to the process for more output. this process is an infinite loop until an answer is reached.

The seven resources of technology are:
-Tools/machines/processes
-Materials
-People
-Capitol $$
-Energy
-Time
-Information

The eight steps in the problem solving process are,
Problems- a need is defined
Goals- make them realistic and consider your resources
Research- get the necessary information to solve the problem
Create ideas- brainstorming, put ideas into motion
Select the best idea- rank ideas by how well they solve the challenge using the design matrix
Build- make the design come to life
Test- use the design in real life testing situations
Feedback- evaluate results, consider improvements. does it need more work?  does it solve the problem? go back and make improvements.

Introduction

My name is Alex Calder. I like to play a lot of sports with my friends or just hang out. I am in 10th grade so I will graduates in 2016. Below is a picture of me.

Here are some pictures of technologies new and old.



Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
         -Arthur C. Clarke