Demonstrating Tangential Velocity by a Self-Coded Robot

Abstract

Tangential velocity is a concept that is often taught as a part of rotation, and is the linear velocity an object has as it turns about a fixed axis. The main goal of this research project was to examine this concept and demonstrate it on a self-coded robot. The robot was designed with two rotating motors with two wings of different lengths to be attached on top, and the motors were connected to a circuit board and coded using the programming language C to rotate with equal and constant angular velocities upon initiation. The main hypothesis is that the length of rotating wings is directly proportional to the tangential velocity of the wings. The project provides a new way of demonstrating tangential velocity in a high school physics class.