STEAMING with STEM: Create a Flag Raiser using a Pulley System

Celebrate Memorial Day

Create a Flag Raiser using a Pulley System

 

Memorial Day isn’t just another day off from school or work! On Memorial Day, we remember, honor, and mourn the military personnel that died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. One way we celebrate the holiday is to put flags up all around the United States. Imagine raising a flag up a flagpole all by yourself. This is where the pulley system comes into play. A pulley is a simple machine that consists of a grooved wheel which is turned by a rope or belt and stays in place as it turns. The cord moves over the wheel, and a load is raised as the cord is pulled. Placing a fixed pulley at the top of a tall flagpole makes the job raising a flag easier than if you had to carry the flag up the pole. A fixed pulley makes work easier by changing the direction of the effort of force applied.

 

Design Challenge: You have been asked to raise the American Flag on Memorial Day, at the Veterans’ Cemetery in Millsboro and Bear, Delaware. Once you finished raising the flag in Millsboro, you drove up to Bear. When you arrived at the Flag Pole, you noticed there was no rope to pull the flag up. So.. as any good patriot, you decided to create a flag raiser. Below are the directions that you used. Try to recreate that flag raiser!

 

Materials

Pencil

Large, empty thread spool

Scissors

Ruler

String

Sheet of typing paper

2 sheets of construction paper (blue and red)

Glue

Masking tape

 

Directions

  1. Place a pencil through the hole in the thread spool. The spool must turn easily on the pencil.
  2. Cut a 6-foot piece of string and tie the ends of the string together.
  3. Cut the sheets of typing paper in half. Set one of the pieces aside and cut some small stars out of the other piece.
  4. Cut a 3-in square from the sheet of blue construction paper. Glue this square in the upper left-hand corner of the white paper and glue the stars on the blue paper.
  5. Cut 6 red strips of paper about ½ -in wide and glue them to the paper.
  6. Tape the star end of the flag to the string
  7. Place the loop of the string over the spool so that the flag hangs at arm’s length over your head.
  8. Pull down on the left side of the loop.
  9. Observe the distance the string is pulled down and the distance and direction the flag moves. You should have noticed that the length of the string pulled down over the spool equals the distance the flag moves upward!