Development of a Swinging Toy Moving by Two Arms on an Inclined Overhead Rail

Abstract

In this study, we developed the swinging toys as the teaching materials on technology education. The toy having two arms moves on the inclined overhead rail by two dimensional swinging. The swinging toy moves like the pendulum which pivot point jump alternating between the contact points of two hands and a rail. It continues swinging using potential energy. The students make the toy while repeating trial and error, and learn content of science and dynamics. We improved two legs of the toy to be able to attach the detachable weights, and experimented on the toys in various positions of the weights and various angles of two legs. We analyzed the center of gravity and moment of inertia for each position of the weights and angle of two legs, and considered the influence of the center of gravity and moment of inertia on the movement success rate and the period of swing.