1.1.6 COMPOUND MACHINE

PARTNERS: Darius Cojocari, Rajas Kothari, Conner Wolfe, and Eric Rivera  

SUMMARY:

This assignment required us to work in teams to design a compound machine that would be able to pull 500 g vertically 3 inches, and 1 kg vertically 6 inches for extra credit.

The other constraints we had:

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• The applied force could only be applied by a single human input

• The final design required a minimum of four mechanisms including simple machines

• The compound machine must have a mechanical advantage greater than 1

We were first required to individually brainstorm three ideas for the compound machine in our engineering journal. After successfully accomplishing so, then we got in our groups for planning our final product and producing a sketch that delineated what we desired to construct. After acquiring instructor approval, we were allowed to begin physical construction of the compound machine. We were allowed to test our machine's capability to lift the weight at our own discretion, which my group did repeatedly to guarantee our success. To demonstrate our success of the task given to us, we had to demonstrate our machine's capability in front of the class as well as create an in-depth analysis of our compound machine in digital format to accompany our presentation.

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REFLECTION:

Learning:

This assignment allowed me to demonstrate my understanding of the new information about simple machines I had gained this year as well as test how much of the design process I remembered from Introduction to Engineering. We had been taught about the various simple machines, compound machines, as well as how to calculate the ideal/actual mechanical advantage of a machine only a class before this project, so we needed to refer to our notes slightly more than we usually did. Although all of us were equals according to the project guidelines, this project allowed me to apply my understanding of leadership and effectively coax all of the members in my team to give their best. Personally, I like to take the initiative in group projects (because I an understand that sometimes it is hard to communicate ideas as well as interact with strangers easily) so in this one I tried to pull the best concepts out of each person's designs by inquiring their opinions. Additionally, I gained a fresh outlook on what it means to effectively and efficiently plan. We took a greater amount of time to plan out our compound machine, which meant we had to start last out of all the groups in the class, however because all of us understood what we had to accomplish, we divvied up our tasks efficiently and finished the quickest out of the other groups in the class. Due to our careful planning and effective construction of our compound machine, we were able to achieve the extra credit task. 

Improvements:

The most important thing that I believe I need to work on is my sketching. The quality of my planning sketches was rather pitiful in my eyes, so I think that I need to practice my sketching and labelling so that it is cleaner in future assignments and projects. On the presentation, if I had convinced my group to practice a little more, we could have surpassed what our instructor's expectations of our project. Holistically, I felt very accomplished on this assignment because of the effectiveness of our machine and group as a whole.