Day 4 - Group 18

Anxiety Sets In

Do you anticipate being successful in your testing? Why or why not?

            Today was a stressful day for the whole group. The whole machine thus far runs, maybe, a total of 8 seconds. It is unreliable, falling apart, and unlikely to be finished. I, personally, do not feel we will be successful in our testing, mostly due to the fact that we might not finish in time. I have started to think that, perhaps, it might be best to just start over. We attempted to start out with very complex systems. One mistake we made was starting the machine with the ball going downwards from the very beginning, forcing us to find a way to bring it back up in a very limited space.

How has each group member specifically contributed since Wednesday?

            Andrew has been very industrious in finding possible solutions to the many problems that have arisen. In many senses, he has taken charge as leader and helped unify the group. He has not only found theoretical resolutions, but also helped implement them. Henry has mostly helped design the piece of the machine subsequent to the one the rest of the group is working on. All the while asking what he can do to help with those working on the machine itself. Jose has helped me work with the actual building of the machine itself. He always seems to find a piece that fits our needs as best as imaginably possible. Jose and I do most of the building itself, but all in all everyone in the group has done a lot of building. Jackson has been very generous in that he bought many of our supplies. His methods may not always be orthodox, but he tries nonetheless. He has provided several interesting ideas with the end-goal in mind, mostly the time requirements. I myself have done a lot of the building and some of the designing. It’s fun working with this group of guys, we are all integral parts of the whole almost as if we’re a Rube Goldberg machine. Can we get bonus points for making one great team? Please... ok…

Have you filled out all the requirements of the project? Particularly the simple machines and energy transfers? Why or why not?

            We have designed all the requirements of the project but have not yet built all of them. I have designed a new machine that will be simpler to build and will also fill all of the requirements. Hopefully I will be able to convince the group to start over. Just strip the boards and start all over again. It will be hard to convince them. If we choose to go with my new design we will have a lot of work ahead of us, but given such a responsible group I do not have a doubt in my mind that we can accomplish the task. Both the original design and the new design fulfill all of the requirements including the simple machines and energy transfers. I believe our fatal flaw was the fact that a group of such smart students was bound to be over-ambitious and slightly idealistic. But I believe we will eventually succeed.