1. By: Nick Moran, Whitney White, and Kelsey Dietz
Plato
By:
Nick Moran, Whitney White, and Kelsey Dietz
Nick: “Ello, I’m Nick Moran.” Whit: “I’m Whitney Whtie.”
Kels: “and I’m Kelsey Dietz.”
ALL: “Our project is called Plato!”

2. Overview Structure made fundamentally of Styrofoam and wood.
Ping-pong balls filled with Play-Doh.
Bobbins and thread used as pulleys.
Newtonian Cradle: wood structure, Play-Doh filled ping- pong balls, thread, bobbins, scrap metal, and dowl rods.
Scissors to initiate the device.
Energy Used:
Linear momentum Projectile motion Torque Center of mass Angular momentum
Nick talks about the device. Make it SHORT! SUMMARY! Materials used Energy used

3. How it works… Scissors set off the Cradle. Newton’s Cradle:
Linear Momentum
Whitney: Scissors cut the thread, which is on spools, and set off the Cradle.

4. How it works… A ball rolls down the Styrofoam track.
Ball hitting the target:
Collision
Target rotating T-shaped rods:
Torque
Kelsey: A ball sits at the end of the cradle at the beginning of the Styrofoam track. Once hit, the ball rolls down the three tiered track.
Whitney: The ball hits the teal-colored target rotating the T-shaped rods.
Ball rotates T-shaped rods.

5. How it works… Block weight drops off seesaw and raises the flag.
Center of Mass
Raising the flag:
Angular Momentum
Kelsey: The T-shaped rods knock the rod weight off the see-saw which allows the block weight at the other end of the seesaw to drop and raise the flag by way of spools and thread (pulley system).

6. Difficulties Finding a time and place where everyone could meet
Not being able to text Whitney
Nick getting his phone’s Sims card jacked
Kelsey living across campus from Morrill
Sleep deprivation
Having EF homework due when we needed to be working on this project
Transporting the device
Not being able to use fire or a guillotine  and settling for scissors
Being poor college students
None of us like talking in front of group
The ADD attention span of nick
Whit: time and place …. EF hw
Kelsey: Transport….. ADD
Nick: “ok, let me tell you our legitimate difficulties. Which balls to use was a hard decision. Ping pong balls wouldn’t be heavy enough but golf balls would be too hard to attach to string. So, I put Play-Doh in the ping pong balls. Next, it was difficult to make the balls on the Newtonian Cradle evenly line up. All the strings had to be equal lengths. Also, deciding what to make the track out of was tough. Eventually, I decided to sand out grooves in styrofoam blocks. The next problem was making the rod on the seesaw able to stand us on its own and be easily knocked over. The solution to this was giving it a relatively small base and moving the center of mass up by changing the shape. Another issue was getting the opposing weights on either end of the flag string balanced so that the flag would raise at a slow pace. Finally, energy loss is a hard thing to apply from calculations to real world applications.”

7. Conclusions
The project was enjoyable to build.
We got to use the skills we learned throughout the course.
We learned that the three of us make a good team.
Time flies by when you’re having fun.
Engineering is fun and a
good major choice.
It was cool to see the
culmination of our efforts
and skills come together.
Whit:
Overall, we had a good time working together on this project. We got to actually apply what we learned in the classroom and benefitted greatly from the hands-on work. The three of us make a good team of joking around, being silly, and actually getting work done in the process.
Kelsey:
Engineering has proved to be an enjoyable major, and we’re glad we chose it. Despite our difficulties along the way, it all came together because we all put forth the effort to create a successful team project. YAY Plato! 