Educational devices
OwnerRobert Ehrlichinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A simple, durable, inexpensive educational device for demonstrating the physical properties of colliding, accelerating and vibrating objects, especially suitable for use by educational institutions at or below the college level is described. The device consists of a pressure sensitive medium affixed to a hard flat surface which may be made to vibrate while one or more balls are made to roll on the surface, resulting in visible imprints in the form of dotted or wavy lines. The distance between dots or the individual undulations of the wavy lines serve to mark the positions of the balls at equally spaced instants of time, and thereby allow a determination of the ball velocities and accelerations without requiring compressed air, spark timers, or stroboscopic photography.
Claims11
An educational device comprising
- a. a flat hard surface,
- b. a pressure sensitive medium attached to said surface,
- c. at least one ball of sufficient weight, such that when said ball rolls on said pressure sensitive medium, it leaves a visible imprint, hereafter referred to as said ball's trail,
- d. a means for producing vibrations of said surface and attached pressure sensitive medium having sufficient amplitude, frequency, and duration, such that the geometric shape and/or darkness of said ball's trail shows periodic features over most of its length.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.