| This LEGO Spring Project requires use
of LEGO ROBOLAB Investigator and a laptop
computer, light sensor, RCX, RCX IR Tower, and a spring, borrowed from
Marshall University's Physics Department. The RCX can record harmonic
motion of the spring. Harmonic motion means that the spring is bouncing
up and down. The procedure is:
1. First, start ROBOLAB software, have a light sensor on port
1 of the RCX.
2. Set ROBOLAB Investigator, Program Level 1, so that
the light sensor will capture data each second for ten seconds.
3. Download the program to the RCX.
4. Place a plate with holes, firmly, to the back of the RCX
and hook the spring through one of the holes.
5. Hang the spring with the RCX attached, very carefully,
and place a light directly below but shining upward
toward the light sensor.
6. With the light on, hold up the RCX and spring, turn the RCX on,
press run, and then let it fall so that harmonic motion can be measured
through the RCX. Reflected light percentage is being data logged
on the RCX and will be graphed after being uploaded to the laptop computer.
7. Now take the RCX over to the computer and place it
in front of the IR Tower.
8. Click on upload and the data will be transferred from the
RCX to the computer where the program will graph the resulting data.
The graph below shows the distance and intensity of the light from
the sensor.
Note the plots for each second of data logged.
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