Time Machines Lab Book Build-It-Yourself.com

The Problem Do you have trouble waking up in the morning? Are you often in a wicked, nasty, foul mood when you get up? Build-It-Yourself.com

The Mission Your mission is to build a cuckoo alarm clock that wakes you up on time and puts you in a good mood. It could tickle you, play rock ‘n roll music, spray you with water, beat a drum, tell you a joke and more. Each hour your cuckoo clock could make a critter come to life. Build-It-Yourself.com

The Plan A Scratch program will keep time, play tunes, control animated characters and drive motors that make your cuckoo critters shake, rattle and roll. Research time machines. Describe your solution. Draw animated critters. Record jokes, quotes, and music Write a program to control your time machine. Build mechanical wake-up mechanisms. Present your solution to the world. Build-It-Yourself.com

Time Time is a basic concept in almost everything we do. Time is precious. Time is money. Time is the fourth dimension. Time flies. Time out! Build-It-Yourself.com

Sun Dial One of the oldest scientific instruments was invented around 3500 BC. During the day the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. A sun dial will cast a shadow that can be calibrated to tell day time. Build-It-Yourself.com

Water Clock Water clocks may be as old as sun dials. This is a Greek Clepsdra (Water Thief) Build-It-Yourself.com

Sand Clock Sand clocks (or hour glasses) were used in early ships for dead reckoning navigation. Build-It-Yourself.com

Pendulum Clock A swinging pendulum has a fixed time between swings. This property can be designed to keep very accurate time. A clever ‘escapement’ mechanism converts swinging motion to rotation motion. Build-It-Yourself.com

Electric Clock Electric motors eliminated the need for frequent resetting of previous clocks. Build-It-Yourself.com

Atomic Clock As scientists required extremely accurate measures of time, the atomic clock was invented. Build-It-Yourself.com

Cuckoo Clock Your mission is to design machine that tells time and alerts you at specified times during the day. Build-It-Yourself.com

Disney Clock Many visitors come to watch this clock tell time at Disney World. Build-It-Yourself.com

Cuckoo Birds Use PowerPoint to create animated cuckoo birds. Build-It-Yourself.com

Cuckoo Birds Use PowerPoint to create graffiti clock numbers. Build-It-Yourself.com

Quotes, Jokes, Tunes Create content for your time machine. “The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” “Why did the duck fly south? Because it would take too long to walk!” Build-It-Yourself.com

Program Your Clock Simple count down timer https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/117415646/ / Clock with hour : minute graffiti numbers https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/306260715/ The Extreme Cuckcoo Clock with rotating arms https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/97674// Build-It-Yourself.com

Scratch Program Control Program execution time impacts clock accuracy. Which program is more accurate and why? How much time is lost each minute in the first program?

Flow Chart 1 Display Minutes Start Set minute and hour variables Decrease hours when minutes = 0 until hours AND minutes = 0. Display minutes units and tens digits Decrease minutes every 59 seconds until minutes = 0. Decrease hours every 60 minutes Display Hours Reset 60 minute timer until hours = 0 Display hours units and tens digits

Scratch Code

Scratch Code

Flow Chart 2 Display Minutes Display Hours Start Set minute and hour variables Display ‘minutes’ = remainder of ‘tot-min’/60 Display ‘hours’ = round down (‘tot-min’/60) Set ‘tot-mins’ = 60xhours+minutes Decrease ‘tot-min’ by 1 every 60 sec until = 0

Cuckoo Critters Build a flock of cuckoo critters and make them come alive every hour using the Build-It-Yourself Scratch motor controller. Build-It-Yourself.com