So the question today was What is complex machine?
And the answer was “Its a machine that uses one or more simple machines”You remember simple machines, we studied that last year. The five types”.
“Yes I know. Can you show me an example of complex machine?”, my daughter asked.
Can I ???
Oh yes. Lets first collect the things we need. An old box, some barbecue skewers, some foam sheets, some character for automata so I picked the butterfly and leaf.
(Not my original thought, had seen this beautiful automata on some site)
I wanted her to try build a lever, wheel and cogs kind of mechanism. Which is very basic for automata.
So we took the box made two holes on the opposite sides for skewer to pass through, a circular foam piece became the wheel or one of the main cogs of the assembly.
Next we put a square foam piece on top of the first wheel and one more skewer that was attached to the square piece and out from the top of the box.
Final step was to put the leaf and butterfly on the skewer. And our automata was ready. When we moved the axle (the longer skewer holding the cog) the wings of butterfly fluttered and it moved left and right.
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