In this project we had to combine both hydraulics and simple machines in order to lift a load. We decided that building a lever would be the best because of the syringes. We designed and built a hydraulic that would push down on a first class lever and lift a load.
Engineering Notebook
Reflection
Before my partner and I collaborated, we each brainstormed potential ideas on our own, this way we would have more designs to choose from. We then came together and explained what we were thinking while coming up with each design. We listed to pros and cons of each machine and eventually decided on a first class lever. While I started working on the equations and data, my partner started building the physical machine. It seemed like we split the work easily, and helped each other with their portion when needed. We managed our time well and finished on track with the initial outline of the project. Throughout the whole project I was able to learn all the different ways to create mechanical advantage from varying the size of the syringes, length of the lever, etc. I found it the most difficult to find the mechanical advantage of the hydraulic because it was proportional to the length of the syringe, not the size (in mL) of the syringe. I think that our machine was very similar to others in the class. Many people also thought that creating a lever goes easily with a hydraulic. One way we could have improved our machine was to make it bigger so it could lift a bigger load, like 2 lb instead of just 1 lb. Overall, the project was able to show that combining multiple machines and mechanical advantages make it harder to achieve a high efficiency.