PLTW Principles

of Engineering
Project 1.1.6: Simple Machines

About the Project

Mechanical systems often require a combination of mechanisms to complete a given
task. Any time two or more machines are combined, the result is a compound machine. If
many mechanisms are combined, the machine may even be referred to as a complex
machine. Compound machines can range in complexity from a crane or automobile to a
simple manual can opener. A bicycle is an example of a compound machine. The pedals,
brakes, handle bars, and sprocket systems are just some of the mechanisms on most
bicycles. In this activity you will work in teams to design and build a compound machine
to accomplish an instructor-specified task.
Our assigned task was to cut a piece of paper using three simple machines
incorporated into our design.

Brainstorming
In order to get the final design we had to draw
up concepts that could possibly be built and
used to complete the desired task. Some of the
concepts include:
Using a lever to push down on the scissors
after a weight attached to a pulley was
dropped onto it.
Using an inclined plane to push a lever onto

Brainstorming Pictures
To

Building In-Progress Images

The Final Design

The design chosen used three simple
machines; gear train, wheel and axle, and a
fixed pulley. The next slide contains images of
this design.

The Final Design Images

IMA: Pulley
The IMA for the fixed pulley was 1. All fixed
pulleys have this IMA since it only involves one
opposing strand. There was no math required
for this calculation.

IMA: Wheel and Axle

The calculated IMA of the wheel and axle is
12.357. Below is the work shown to get this
answer:

IMA: Gear Train

The IMA of the gear train is .705.

Total IMA of the Machine and Work

for Mechanism IMAs

This image shows the IMA calculations, basic

sketches of each mechanism with signatures and
labels, and also a total IMA calculation. In order to
get the final IMA of a machine, you must multiple all
of the individual machines IMAs or gear ratio. For
this machine, we had to multiple 12.357x1x.705.
This gave us a total of 8.712.