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3 Responses to “How to make an object move back and forth ten metres?”

1. bdwolfhound Says:
   August 23rd, 2009 at 7:01 am

   There are lots of ways to do what you want. The choice depends on whatever other constraints there are.

   For example, you could build a very tall tower and hang a long pendulum from it. However, I think that is impractical so here’s a simple solution:

   Block off a 10 meter track to the wall about one meter wide. Then fire a golf ball vertically at the wall so it stays between the edges you built for the track (the ground must be smooth enough for the golf ball to roll easily). With a little experimentation, you can figure out how fast the golf ball must be fired at the wall to come back the 10 meters.

   This will work even if the ground is too rough for a good roll. Just fire the ball at a small upward angle so it travels in the air.

   I recommend a golf ball because it has has a high coefficient of restitution (bounce), but may other things will work just as well.
   References :

2. The Iron Geik Says:
   August 23rd, 2009 at 7:04 am

   The object will need is some kind of spring. When the object hits the wall its kinetic energy will be stored in the spring as potential energy, then released, pushing the object back to you.
   The other key is to minimize friction. Any wheels have to spin very easily, and any tires must have a very low rolling resistance.
   References :

3. rhoadess Says:
   August 23rd, 2009 at 8:55 am

   One way you could do this is to make a pendulum with a heavy object at the end. 10 meters is about 33 feet, so the pendulum would have to be long, tied to a pretty high ceiling. I assume that the 10 meters is the distance traveled horizontally, and not the total distance. From there you would have to figure out how much initial force is needed to get the ball at the end of you pendulum to overcome the frictional forces it will encounter on it’s way to the wall and back a total of 20 meters. You should try to center the location of where you tie your pendulum say about 5 meters from the wall. If you are only allowed to go a total of 10 meters horizontally traveled, then this still might work, you could tie an object which the pendulum drags along the ground. If you drag something along the ground you would have to figure out how much total energy is needed to move it 20 meters, Work = F*d where F is a constant known force, and d is the distance traveled. F = m*a, which is simply the same thing as weight, so tie your dragged object to a spring scale and drag it 10 meters with a constant weight on the surface you plan to use, and from there you can use the equation Work = m*g*h where m = mass of pendulum ball, g = gravity’s acceleration and solve for h of your pendulum, that is the total vertical height it will need to fall to match the energy needed to drag the object 10 meters, both trips. You may have to actually give your pendulum some extra energy for the first trip, and when your dragged object hits the wall and stops all the energy it has sucked out of the pendulum for the trip back will be exactly enough to make it all the way back. Some problems you might run into is that your pendulum might hit the wall, and you would lose some energy in the collision, or when the object hits the wall you lose some energy in the wall, which might not be a big problem if you adjust for this as was said. One other thing is that you might want to use a bungee to attach to your dragged object, so that there is always a constant tension between the two, try other ideas as well. Try making a smaller scale model first and experiment with that, say something big enough to fit on the kitchen table.
   References :
   From what I remember from Physics class about Work and Kinetic Energy.

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