Summer Career Connections at SAVY 2018: Session 6, Day 2 – Kinematics for Mechanical Design (Rising 7th)
Today in class, we continued our work on pulley systems. Our next concern was calculating the relative velocities of objects in the system. For example, how does object A appear to be moving to an observer sitting on object B? We came up with a vector equation for objects moving up and down, and then generalized it for objects moving in any direction in the plane. We learned a graphical method for solving this vector equation by drawing a vector triangle to scale.
The next mechanism on the agenda is gears. We discussed some basic best practices for designing with gears (a whole number of teeth, please!) and the relationship between gear size (diameter, radius, and circumference) and the number of teeth around the edge. We performed computations for simple gear trains and compound gear trains, and tomorrow we will make a two-view drawing of a compound gear system. Today we built the foundation for this drawing by learning how to use a compass to draw circles, measure and copy distances, and find the perpendicular bisectors of line segments. I look forward to seeing everyone tomorrow as we continue our work with gears!
Dr. B.
Today’s Photos
