5cm extension cable
Today I did the elastic band powered ice cream carton design experiment with both of my first year classes. They thought up a lot of interesting design experiments but were also confronted with some difficulties. I am getting a bit fed up with the "how long does it take for the motion to stop" type of research so decided to ban them unless they were really something to do with damping. So "how is the time taken for the motion to stop related to the number of turns" is out but "how is the time taken for the motion to stop related to the size of the paddle" is still acceptable. Well, at least it keeps me happy. Many students wanted to time the paddle with a light gate, the problem is data studio processes the data in such a way that it makes the results quite difficult to analyse. Simply plotting the state of the photogate against time was much simpler to understand.
During the course of the morning someone managed to bend pins in two of the mini din plugs connecting the interfaces to the USB port. These connectors cost about £150 each in Norway so I wasn't too pleased. To prevent further damage I am going to buy some short extension cables so if the pins get bent I just have to replace the extension. So far I can only find ones that are about 6ft long and the last thing I need is more cables hanging on the cupboard doors. I suppose there isn't much call for extending cables by 5cm.