Event Year: 2025 Event Location: Cocoa-FL Competition: Energy Transfer Machine Division: 3-5 School: Thornebrooke Elementary Team Name: Fly S.W.A.Ters Project Name: The Pancake Fly Trap Team Size: 3
No one wants a fly to land on top of their delicious stack of pancakes. The Pancakery has installed the newest bug prevention invention – the Pancake Fly Trap – to protect their customer’s yummy stacks! Check out this video to see how it works.
The machine starts when the fly is pulled down by gravity and zips into the Pancakery.
The attached second string pulls on the lever of the battery pack closing the electric circuit and turning on the motor.
The energy from the electric motor turns the potential energy of the tennis ball into kinetic energy as it rolls down the ramp.
The kinetic energy of the tennis ball transfers into the shaft that pushes the pendulum off the edge of the ledge.
The kinetic energy of the pendulum transfers into the ball that looks like the Earth. The ball rolls into the pulley.
The left side of the pulley has a pole that pushes the first domino. The potential energy of the dominoes turns into kinetic energy as they fall into each other inside the stove. The energy continues into the marble as it travels down the incline plane.
The kinetic energy of the marble knocks the arm that spins down into the oven.
When we realized the marble jumped the oven most times, we added a bowl of dough to the other side of the oven.
The tape roll and toy car are at potential energy. The kinetic energy of the arm pushes the roll which pushes the car off the ledge and into the lever on the floor.
The lever triggers the lowering of the Hotwheels track that is holding a weighted car. As the track reaches the bottom, the car rolls down the short ramp transferring its kinetic energy into the weight at the bottom of the ramp.
The weight falls onto a VEX bumper switch which sends an electrical signal to the VEX Brain telling it to start the conveyor belt that is made from a gear train and VEX track. The bottle cap ring holds another marble in potential energy as it travels down the conveyor belt.
As the marble tumbles down the series of funnels, gravity makes it spin faster and faster.
The marble eventually pops out of the last funnel and sends its kinetic energy into the standing dominoes. The final domino has the angry spatula ready to smash the fly just before it lands on the delicious stack of pancakes.
The goal is to hit the fly before it can land on the pancakes! Here is the full run of the Pancake Fly Trap in action.
Made by Thornebrooke Elementary 5th graders: Callum B., Shane F., and Tyler M.
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2 thoughts on “The Pancake Fly Trap”
Excellent job explaining the different steps on the website, using pictures and labels. It was good to know about the change you made due to the marble always passing over the oven. The number of transfers were impressive and the constant motion kept things interesting. It was fun to watch with the time spread out among all the different steps. You could tell you also added some artistic touches to the machine. Great job!
Excellent job explaining the different steps on the website, using pictures and labels. It was good to know about the change you made due to the marble always passing over the oven. The number of transfers were impressive and the constant motion kept things interesting. It was fun to watch with the time spread out among all the different steps. You could tell you also added some artistic touches to the machine. Great job!
Super cute. Love the story behind it. Keep my pancakes safe!