Data Sheet

Balancing robot
YOU WILL NEED
Forces of resistance
If you roll a ball on the ground and it does not
bump into anything, why does it stop rolling?
The reason the ball stops rolling is because of
friction. Friction is a force that resists motion by
converting that motion into heat. If you rub your
hands together you will feel them heat up due
to friction. If there was no friction and the ball
could roll forever, would it ever stop rolling?
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2
6 13 14 15
30
31
16 17
24 26 29
4 x
1 x
1 x
1 x
1 x
1 x
2 x
2 x
1 x
1 x
1 x
HERE’S HOW
1
to
4
Assemble the model.
5
Insert one rip cord into the slot
in the flywheel engine. Pull the
rip cord and place the model
down on a flat smooth surface.
See how far the model travels.
6
Now insert rip cords into both the
gyroscope and flywheel engine. Pull
both rip cords at once (or start with the
gyroscope) and place the model down.
How does the distance it travels this
time compare to before?
WHAT’S HAPPENING
From your previous experiments you saw
that a gyroscope resists changes in its
axis of rotation. This resistance to change
is due to a property of all materials
called inertia. You feel the effects of
inertia when a car stops suddenly and
your body continues moving forward,
pressing into your seatbelt. Inertia was
formulated by Newton in his first law
of motion, often called the law of
inertia. It states that an object at rest
stays at rest, while an object in motion
stays in motion unless it is acted upon
by a force.
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EXPERIMENT 5