Cody Johnson Jared Rowland Stephen Sherwood Nick Watson
Our main goal was to create a contraption to activate a cat toy. We acquired our materials mostly from the scrap pile or around the house. We only purchased a roll of wire and wooden balls from a craft store.
Starting off, a steel ball bearing rolls down a tube, hits a ramp and lands in a PVC pipe pivoting on an axis. The PVC pipe flips downward, releasing the ball bearing into another pipe. The ball bearing then strikes a wooden Newton’s Cradle ball that rests inside the pipe at the end.
The energy is then transferred to a wooden ball resting on a piece of wood. The wooden ball rolls down a ramp, then strikes a toy dump truck. The toy truck rolls down the final ramp, striking two electrical connections, which then activates the cat toy.
Projectile Motion Steel ball launching into PVC pipe Center of Mass PVC pipe pivoting on a board Collision Steel ball hitting wooden ball Wooden ball hitting truck Conservation of Energy Newton’s Cradle
This project took a lot longer than it should have. We had a lot of problems with the toy dump truck going down ramp and turning on the cat toy. This project was a lot of trial and error, but the outcome was neat.