Mr. S's
Example Physics with "Imagineering"
Mr. S's
Example
Imagine...........Useless Garbage?
In the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy, a Coke bottle falls from an airplane into the center of an Aboriginal Village in the Kalahari Desert. The villagers transform the Coke bottle from useless garbage into a tool that is at first treasured and then coveted. Finally it is returned to the gods at the edge of the world.
Before the Coke bottle arrived, the villagers lived happy and harmonious lives and accomplished their essential tasks with existing tools. After the bottle dropped mysteriously into their village, however, tribe members began eagerly seeking opportunities to use the new technology to make their own lives easier. First, they used it in place of their old tools. For example, they pounded meal with it and used it to smooth animal skins for tanning. Then they explored ways to use it that were suggested by its shape and form. They used it as an artist's tool for imprinting designs on their skin with pigment, they blew across it to make music, and they tossed it sparkling into the air in games and ceremonies.
Like the desert villagers, you have found a fascinating new tool. How will you use this treasure? Open yourself up to all the possibilities. Be as creative as possible, but we will all agree not to throw it off a cliff in the end!
Your Task......
Design and engineer a device from discarded plastic CD cases.
Your invention can not use more than 6 plastic CD cases.
The device should ...
be original
be functional as a Physics Demonstration or Lab Apparatus
be creative
be formally documented with appropriate notes, schematics, ideas
generated
and involve bouncing ideas off your grandparents, parents, siblings,
friends
If the device you engineered is for a Demo, develop a written explanation of the Physics demonstration it would be used for, and or if it is to be used as a lab apparatus, then write an appropriate Physics Lab for the apparatus you designed.
Your inventions will be presented to the class on April 7th.
