Have you ever ever puzzled how balancing toys work? You’ll find out with this easy marshmallow balancing STEM problem! It is an incredible exercise for studying about gravity and centre of mass.
You will want
A bottle with a lid
5 picket skewers
4 Marshmallows
A Carrot
Directions
Lower a small piece of carrot and place a bit of picket skewer about 2 inches lengthy into the underside. Many of the skewer ought to be outdoors the acrrot.
Place the skewer on the highest of the bottle, it would fall over.
Push the pointed finish of two skewers into reverse sides of the carrot and push a marshmallow onto the top of each.
Place the carrot onto the bottle. It ought to now stability!
Add two extra marshmallow skewers to the carrot and see if it nonetheless balances.
Experiment by transferring the marshmallows up and down the skewers.
Why did this work?
At first, the carrot didn’t stability on the bottle as a result of it was reduce erratically and had a skinny skewer caught within the backside, making it wobbly. The carrot stays balanced when its centre of mass (the purpose the place all of the stuff within the carrot is evenly distributed) is instantly above the skewer. Gravity pulls down, and if the centre of mass is not lined up over the skewer within the backside it creates a turning power that ideas the carrot over.
By including extra skewers with marshmallows across the sides of the carrot, we had been capable of change the centre of mass. Too distant from the bottle and that turning power attributable to gravity retains tipping it over, however by adjusting the skewers and marshmallows little by little, we introduced the centre of mass again over the bottle and the skewer on the backside, preserving the carrot balanced.
Spreading out the marshmallows decrease and wider on the skewer made it extra steady, like how a wide-bottomed mug is more durable to tip over.
Further Stability Toy Problem
Experiment with totally different supplies. We made a enjoyable elf balancing toy with a cork because the elf physique and play dough on the ends of the skewers.
Play dough is a good materials to make use of within the ends as it is simple to form and add or take away bits.
Final Up to date on December 5, 2024 by Emma Vanstone
