Matthew Cheng

Physics [A]-9/14/09
Physics Clock Project

My clock project involves a system of pulleys, a tape measure, and a weight to

create a working time device, or clock. It works by a tape measure being used as a spring,

and pulling fishing wire. It is connected by a system of pulleys with fishing wire, so that

essentially, the pull of the tape measure is pulling the weight up, and the time of the

weight hitting the top, is the time that can be measured. The pulleys are set up in a 2-1

ratio, so that the minimum length of the tape measure can be magnified. There are many

ways the increments of time can be changed with this clock. One can change the angle of

which the board is angled, so the lower the angle, and the less gravity affects the time is

needed for the weight to go upward. One can also change the amount of weight in the

container (in the form of 8g wing nuts) to also vary resistance, so the more weight, more

time. Finally, how far you pull the weight down (determined how far the tape measure is

out) is also a factor, and of course the longer the distance the longer the time(with 21

inches as the maximum).

The clock is mounted on a 4ft by 2ft board and weighs about 10-15 pounds, so it

is not very practical if one wanted to carry it around. However, if mounted on a wall or in

a fixed position, it might be very useful (if better clocks hadn’t been invented). You can

change the independent variables, such as the weight, angle of board, and how far you

pull it down. This would be useful in places such as a classroom or learning place to

experiment how mechanics works and how certain independent variables can affect the

clock and most likely a very inconvenient mechanism for measuring seconds. For
accuracy, it can measure any number of seconds, not minutes, because of how the

variable can be changed. There is a table at the bottom showing some of the

measurements with different settings. The precision is also very good as from trial to

trial, it records the same time. The deviation is about .2 of a second off sometimes so

overall; it is pretty accurate when it is set up properly. The below table is an example of

how the clock can be tuned for different times using the below variables.

Length Angle Weight Time

21 inches 90 degrees 16grams (2 3.5 seconds

wing nuts)

21 in. 60 deg. 16 grams (2) 3 sec.

21 in. 30 deg. 16 grams (2) 2.5 sec.

14 in. 90 deg. 16 grams (2) 1.5 sec

7 in. 90 deg. 16 grams (2) .9 sec

21 in. 90 deg. 24 grams (3) 6.4 sec

21 in. 90 deg. 8 grams (1) .8 sec