Physics

Light-Up Card

We used metallic tape, LED lights, and a small battery to make a light-up card. The front of the card had a superhero that had an emblem, and we used LED lights to make it light up. The circuit inside the card connected the LED light to a circular battery, which was positioned so the light would turn on when the card was pressed closed. 

Hoverboard

Our first issue was how to draw a circle evenly. We decided to use a two-foot string tied to two pencils, using one pencil to draw and the other as a center point. 

After drawing our circle we realized the wood needed to be more significant to make an even circle. However, after cutting and sanding, the flat edges turned out to be fine. 

We divided the work to make more progress, with some people cutting the plastic sheeting while others drilled holes and wrapped the edges in duct tape. 

Before drilling the holes in the wood we had a bit of confusion and debate about how and where to drill them,   we were careful to do nothing permanent until we were sure what to do. 

While drilling we had an issue with our drill, but the other group finished using theirs and gave it to us. 

To wrap the wooden disk in duct tape, we propped it up between two tables and had one person place the duct tape while another person turned the disk and checked the tape was secure. 

We used the string and pencil trick again to cut out the plastic sheeting, and then make a 9-inch circle for the holes. 

This method ended up being more difficult than we thought, but we got the circles drawn in the end. 

We realized that the hole we made wasn’t big enough for the bolt, so we had to expand it. 

Since we no longer had access to the engineering room, it took us longer than we expected to make the vacuum hole since we had to drill it, but we found a way to do it with the drill. 

There was an incident with the tape. 

Despite what the instructions said was necessary, the ring of tape around the edge prevented the hoverboard from working properly. 

Our project related to Newton's first law because while people were moving on the hovercraft, they had to be aware of inertia as they moved and changed dictions. Newton's second law was involved with the maximum weight we could have on the hoverboard. Newton's third law was involved because of the opposing forces of the vacuum's applied force and the gravity acting on the person and hoverboard. 

We also had to use the "shape" and "form" elements of art in creating these hoverboards because we had to make sure the shape and form of our board were correct to ensure it would work.