Motorized Balancing Toy
Materials: • Annealed steel wire (bailing wire) • A hobby motor • About a 2' solid core copper wire (we like to use twisted pair telephone wire for this) • AA battery • Wide rubber band or inner tube slice • 1'' x 6'' wood dowel • Small piece of wood (1/2' x 4 x 4'') for a base • Small piece of foam core • Popsicle stick Tools: • Scissors • Pin nosed pliers • Small wood saw • Hot glue gun This project addresses two basic mechanics concepts, center of mass and torque. In order to get the toy to balance you have to find the center of mass of an asymmetric object, the motor wire and battery. Because the toy is essentially a beam you're dealing with an issue of torque. That is to say the twisting force on the toy will be equal to the weight of whatever is at the end of the wire (the motor or battery) and how far the motor or battery is from the balance point (the center of mass). When it comes to powering the toy, you also have