Force and motion
Force and Motion
How to meet the challenge
The way to make a mechanism where X controls Y is to use a fastener that connects X and Y to *each other, *but not to the base. The easiest way to accomplish this is to first put a fastener between strips X and Y, as in a). Then attach X to the base, as in b) above.
Up to now, all of the fasteners have attached strips to bases. Once a fastener goes through the base, it is not free to move, but it may allow a lever to move. We’ll call a fastener that can’t move itself, but allows a strip to rotate, a** fixed pivot**. A fastener that can move with a strip, because it is not attached to the base, is called a floating pivot. Any strip that can move is a link. We show a floating pivot by an open circle, and a floating pivot by a solid circle.