For the past few days in class, we have been working on making switches. Basically, we have to make a circuit and light up a bulb, but we have to make switches to activate the circuit. Our task was to create three switches. In the end, we would connect wires to the conductive parts of the switch and use that to light up the bulb.
My first switch was the tall one with the tinfoil circle hanging down from it. It has blue string. In this switch, you activate it by pushing up the circle. The circle is covered with tinfoil and when that tinfoil touches the tinfoil at the top, electrons can pass through them allowing the circuit to be complete. This circuit was the most challenging to make because I needed to make sure that the two strings were of equal length so the circle wouldn’t be lopsided. In the end, my circle got a little lopsided but I was able to add weight on one side to balance the circle. Another problem was that one of the materials that I wanted to use, a rubber band, had run out so I had to make best with what I could do. Luckily though, the switch works perfectly fine. This one is probably my favorite because I think it’s the most complex.
My second switch is the one that has a stick hanging down. This activator has a roof which is only held up by one side. That side is covered in tinfoil. The roof has a stick hanging down from it. This activator is activated by pushing the stick onto the side. Since both are covered in tinfoil, which is a conductor, electrons will pass through. This switch wasn’t that hard to make, but in the beginning, I messed up and glued the stick too far away from the side, so I had to fix that. This was done with relative ease.
The last switch is covered completely in tinfoil. It looks a bit like a seesaw. This switch was probably the simplest to make. To activate it, I push one side of the seesaw down onto the tinfoil covered floor. The only thing difficult about this switch was coming up with the idea. Since it was my final one, I didn’t exactly know what to do, but my friend helped me think of an idea.
These are my three switches. Soon, we’re going to play a game to see how fast I can activate them. I think my switches will work, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens!