We started off by making a base that the ramp and supports would be on top of. Next we nailed a 1.1 meter long ramp to the base. We had to use two separate pieces of wood to make the one ramp. They stay together because of one small legs support in between the two and because we hot glued metal reinforces under them so that they would have further support. Once the ramp was firmly attached we nailed two two-by-fours together and then we nailed that one piece to the base and to the ramp. It is approximately .8 meters long. Following this we nailed another two-by-four to the base.
Then we nailed a small, almost square platform to the two-by-four so that two-by-four was in the middle of it. Now the actual structure was complete, but a curved piece of wood needed to be attached so it could house the hook that the pulley would be put on. So we nailed on a curved piece of wood we got from the demolished chair the very end of the platform. Once this was done we taped a small hook to the end of the curved piece of wood, attached a pulley to the hook, and stringed the hook. Next we spray painted our project green and white and named it Hot Moma. Then we found ourselves done with the building of the machine.
This machine needs to perform one task… lift a 10 Newton book .8 meters high with the help of two simple machines. We tie the string to the book at the bottom of the ramp. Then we pull the string through the pulley down so that the book can go up the ramp. We continue pulling the book up the ramp until it has cleared the top of the .8 meter tall table.
There are two simple machines in our compound machine that both contribute to making pulling a 10 Newton book .8 meters high. The pulley makes work easier by changing the direction of the applied force. When we pull down on the rope the book goes up. The second simple machine in our compound machine was the ramp. The ramp makes work easier by increasing the distance the book had to travel. Instead of just pulling the book straight up off the ground, having the book move up the sloped ramp a greater distance. The amount of work that is done this way is the same as just picking the book straight up, but because the distance was increased, the amount of force needed to complete the task was decreased.
