Pulleys and beyond

Here's a recap of what we have learned about pulleys so far. There are two types of pulleys, Single and Compound. There are two types of single pulleys, Fixed & Movable; Fixed pulleys only give you a directional advantage. The force you must use to lift the load is the SAME as the weight of the load. Only one rope supports the load A fixed pulley changes the direction of the lift. Instead of lifting the object up, you are pulling down(much easier) on the rope and lifting the load. The other, a movable pulley, gives you a mechanical advantage and allows you to use less effort to lift the load because the weight of the load is shared by two ropes. The Compound pulleys we covered were  single fixed/ single movable effort down and Single fixed single movable effort up. SF/SM EFFORT UP  used the least effort because it had 3 ropes supporting the load. Two ropes equal half the effort. Three ropes equals 1/3 the effort and so on.

The Rube Goldberg Olympics were officially started. Students are in the process of forming groups. If you do not have a group, see me and we will tale care of that. Each group must sign up on the sheet for their class(bulletin board in back of room). Each group must make a machine that completes a simple task. They must draw a Blueprint/diagram of their machine that shows how it is supposed to work. They will have to write a procedure that describes how their machine works. Presentations will be made in the auditorium to your classmates. Parents will be invited to attend.

That's all for now, Any questions just email me.