Complete the following investigation. Apply your notes and what you learn to the design of your car. Experiment with ideas on your car.

3-2 Orientation Investigation
Materials Needed:
  • Plastic or wood ruler
Procedure: (see Figure 9)
  1. Take the ruler and hold it at each end.
  2. Try to bend it in both directions - across thin and wide.
  3. Which way does the ruler bend more?
  4. Do not brend the ruler so far that it breaks.


Figure 9: Orientation investigation setup

Observations:

The ruler will bend more in the thin direction. It bends very little in the wide direction.