Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Effect of Friction on Objects in Motion
The funny thing about friction is that you couldn't get anywhere without it, yet it still acts to slow you down as you're getting there. Here is an easy project to measure the effects of friction.
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Effect of Trebuchet Arm Length or Counterweight Mass on Project
A trebuchet is a catapult that uses a counterweight to supply the energy for throwing. They were used in the Middle Ages for attacking castle walls. In this project, you build your own model trebuchet and investigate how design changes...
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Fractography: The Way Things Break
When something goes wrong, do you like to try to figure out why? Engineers do this all the time. They even have a fancy name for it: failure analysis. Understanding how different materials break is an important part of failure analysis....
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Measuring Vibrational Frequency With Light
Strike a key on the piano, and you hear the string vibrating. Just about any object vibrates when it's knocked, but how much and how fast? This project helps you find out. You'll build a simple light-sensing circuit for measuring the...
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Gears Go Round!
Music boxes, bicycles, and clocks all have one thing in common: GEARS. You might say that gears make the world turn, since they are in so many mechanical instruments. How do they work and how do you know which gears to use? Find out in...
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Rubber Bands for Energy
If you've ever been shot with a rubber band then you know it has energy in it, enough energy to smack you in the arm and cause a sting. How can the energy of a rubber band be put to work? In this experiment you will find out how the...
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Which Simple Machines Do I Use the Most?
When you think of a machine, you probably think of computers or robots. Try this experiment to see how simple machines are used everyday around your house.
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Knock Your Blocks Off: The Mechanics of Carnival Games
Why are those "simple" games at the fairs, carnivals, and boardwalks so hard? Is it really lack of skill or coordination or do those concessionaires use some basic laws of science to help them set up the games in their favor? This...
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: You Nailed It! Hammering Force for Different Types of Wood
This Science Buddies project explains how to build a mechanism that will reproducibly swing a hammer so you can determine the amount of force needed to hammer a nail through various densities of wood. The Science Buddies project ideas...
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Applying Hooke's Law: Make Your Own Spring Scale
Hooke's law says that the opposing force of a spring is directly proportional to the amount by which the spring is stretched. How accurately Hooke's law describe the behavior of real springs? Can springs be used to make accurate scales...
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Rubber Band Elasticity and Temperature
Many materials expand when heated and contract when cooled. What do you think will happen to the elasticity (stretchiness) of a rubber band when it is heated or cooled to various temperatures?
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Veggie Snap! Modifying Bending Stresses in a Flexible Rod
Examples of the effect of bending stresses on flexible rods could include a large tree bending over to the ground, or a fishing pole bending till it snaps. Scientists actually study this phenomenon and discover ways to prevent breakage,...
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Bomb's Away! A Ping Pong Catapult
With this project you'll send ping pong balls flying through the air with a rubber-band powered catapult. This catapult makes it easy to reproduce the launch angle, and to measure the amount of force applied to the projectile. Armed with...
Other
University of Minnesota Deptartment of Mechanical Engineering
Website of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota. The site has information on degree programs, research, etc.
Other
American Society of Mechanical Engineers
This site is the homepage of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
Washington State University
Washington State University: Ask Dr. Universe: How Do Cars Work?
Website from Washington State University answers questions kids have about science, mechanics and engineering in an easy to understand format. In this letter, Dr. Universe answers questions about how the family car works.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Splash, Pop, Fizz: Rube Goldberg Machines
Refreshed with an understanding of the six simple machines; screw, wedge, pully, incline plane, wheel and axle, and lever, student groups receive materials and an allotted amount of time to act as mechanical engineers to design and...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Strong Arm Tactics
Students generally do not know the complexity that goes into building and programming a robotic arm. In actuality, creating such an arm comes from a design that involves mechanical, electrical, and computer science engineers. This...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Cars: Engineering for Efficiency
Students learn how the aerodynamics and rolling resistance of a car affect its energy efficiency through designing and constructing model cars out of simple materials. As the little cars are raced down a tilted track (powered by gravity)...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Tug of War Battle Bots
Students are introduced to the concepts of torque, power, friction and gear ratios. Teams modify two robotic LEGO vehicles by changing their gear ratios, wheel sizes, weight and engine power, while staying within a limit of points to...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Wide World of Gears
In an interactive and game-like manner, students learn about the mechanical advantage that is offered by gears. By virtue of the activity's mechatronics presentation, students learn to study a mechanical system as a dynamic system under...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Viscosity: The Flow of Milk
Students study the physical properties of different fluids and investigate the relationship between the viscosities of liquid and how fast they flow through a confined area. Student groups conduct a brief experiment in which they...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Keep It Moving! From Electrons to Electric Motors
Students act as engineers to apply what they know about how circuits work in electrical/motorized devices to design their own battery-operated model motor vehicles with specific paramaters. They calculate the work done by the vehicles...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: What Works Best in a Radiator?
Students learn the importance of heat transfer and heat conductance. Using hot plates, student groups measure the temperature change of a liquid over a set time period and use the gathered data to calculate the heat transfer that occurs....