4/1/19 Lecture Day Progress (Week 1)

On Monday, April 1st 2019, the first day of Lecture class, the group #6 was formed and introduced to the project.

This image shows some notes that we took on the first day.

Fig. 1 - 1st Lecture day notes

Some notes on the first day also included talks on what designs were or were not feasible. We started the "sketching ideas and designing" process with Benedict taking the class notes and drawing a force diagram of the gel magnet and what forces would act on the gel magnet. 

This is where we ran into the first challenge/issue: Since our goal is to keep the magnet in the same place (same coordinates of the x-, y- and z-axis of space) while the gel rotates around it, how are we going to cancel the force of gravity; since the kinetic friction of the gel cancels out the force of the magnet when it is still in space, how do we prevent the magnet from slowly descending down the z-axis (descending towards the earth).

Upon further consultation, it was decided that only the position along the x- and y- axis should be considered for this project. 

Soon after, the group was asked to come up with some general setup ideas for their version of the project and draw them onto a Post-It Note. The group submitted this note:

Fig. 2 - 4 possible combinations of rotation / magnetic attraction type

This note outlines 4 ways of designing the same setup. With m representing the gel magnet and M representing the Neodymium-Iron-Boron Magnet (Nd-Fe-B). It considers whether the magnets are repelling or attracting each other, with each scenario considering the respective charge of each magnet. It also states which way the gel would have to rotate to provide the correct direction of the kinetic friction (correct direction = acting against the force of the M magnet).