It was time to do something different. So Jason and I decided to conduct a "Black Box Experiment."
This involves building a black box that has a definate input and a definate output. At the beginning of
class we would describe "black boxing" as an attempt to figure out a problem without being able to
see all the parts. ( For example, given a set of symptoms we can ascertain what is happening...if you
hear a loud "WHUMP" and your car suddenly starts leaning toward one side and there is a
"thump-thumpa" sound as you drive, odds are you have a flat tire...other relevant examples are the
elusive "top quark" and the discovery of both Pluto and its moon ). This usually lead to a discussion of
how we could fool the pop machine into giving us free pops ( I have never heard of so many creative
solutions! ).
"Theory is the captain. Practice, the soldiers."
Leonardo Da Vinci
The Black Box was then presented. It was described as a
piece of alien technology...evidently the driving mechanism on a crashed Flying Saucer
discovered near Roswell. Unfortunately two are needed to
operate the spacecraft and the other melted on impact. We are unable to cut the box open to see
its operating parts, so we have to infer its mechanism by its actions.
( Oh yeah, I offered to buy a pop to the student who first discovered a solution ! )
The Black Box is a wooden box approximately 18cm x 16cm x 10cm.
Inside was a LEGO® model. In this case a simple linear to rotary motion model. When the large
pulley was turned outside, the medium pulley on the top would travel up and down. The energy
( the initial rotary motion ) was bent at 90 degrees, traveled about
8cm over and 10cm up give or take to the medium pulley. The medium pulley moved about
3cm up and down with each turn of the large pulley ( implying a one to one ratio ). These
qualities were required in the solution for the reward of the pop.
Over the course of the week, most of our student's tackled the problem. Of course they tried X-Ray
glasses and ESP to figure the mysterious inner workings, but in the end it was the connection between
the kind of motion and how to create it that aided them!
And the insides of the box? I don't know if I should tell you. I challenge you folk
in Web Land to try and find the answer yourself and send me a picture...but if you really must
know...
Go Back to Weird Richard
