Thought 7: Laser Laws 📐 💡

How can we test the pythagorean theorem and the law of reflection?

Group members Blogs

Mateo

Carter

This was our 3rd Scimatics project and our last one of the year. We were assigned to make triangles, using lasers. In a way, it was sort of like an art project. I really enjoyed this project.

We were assigned to work in groups. My partners were Mateo and Carter.

Communicating and Representing.

Before we made our physical structures, we first had to use a laser simulator to make a design. For my design, I managed to make a full triangle with only 1 laser, and 1 mirror. The way I did it was by simply making 1 very large curved mirror. After I made my design, I used notability to type out a lab report of my findings. While I was testing the pythagorean theorem, I came to the conclusion that this was not a right angle triangle. I didn’t really understand why the pythagorean theorem did not work.

Questioning and predicting.

When we first started this project, there were a lot of things I didn’t understand. I didn’t understand the pythagorean theorem, the law of reflection or how lasers work. Early in the project, the class spent hours learning about these formulas. We learned these by reading textbooks, doing Khan Academy quizzes and using the laser simulator. Overall I would say that me and my group mates prepared a lot before we made our final structure.

Applying and Innovating.

Finally, after mass waiting, the day had arrived. It was time to build. For our structure, we where allowed to use 2 high power lasers and 5 small mirrors. We had decided that for our design we where going to make a square with a diagonal line running through it. However, after testing our design, we found out that it would be extremely difficult to mount both of our lasers when we were only allowed to use 1 high capacity lithium battery. We decided to scrap our idea and instead build a simple triangle. Since it was such a simple shape, it only took us about 10 minutes to tear down our old structure and assemble the new one. On testing day, we used a smoke machine to fill the room with smog to make our displays look really cool (but it smelled terrible).  

Conclusion

In conclusion, I think me and my group mates did a very good job on our project and had a lot of fun building it. I hope in the future we get to do more project where we build things. I am a bit upset that Scimatics is ending but I’m excited because there is still more PLP projects this year.