Drinking Fountain

Introduction
ABC Industrial makes a touch-free hand dryer for use in public restrooms. Scientific research has proven that warm air hand dryers are more hygienic for drying hands than drying with a paper towel; however, a dryer with hands-free operation improves sanitation even more by eliminating contaminated buttons. Touchless hand dryers also have the added benefit of reducing maintenance and utility costs.
ABC Industrial is thinking of expanding its product offerings, hoping to bring the hygienic benefits of their touch-free hand dryer to the ordinary drinking fountain. As an electrical engineer at ABC, your job is to create a prototype of such a touch-free drinking fountain in order to show the viability of such a product.
Your marketing team has conducted focus groups with both business owners who might purchase a drinking fountain and customers who would use one. Results show that business owners are concerned about wasting water. They want the drinking fountain to activate only when someone actually wants a drink of water rather than when they are just passing by. Customers want a fountain that triggers reliably and quickly.
Your job is to create a prototype of a motion-activated drinking fountain using Vernier sensors, Logger Pro software or a standalone LabQuest 2, and a variety of output devices shown in the Materials list.
Learning Objectives
- Supplement classroom instruction of motion and its effects with hands-on engineering application.
- Control devices (pump) based on input from measured physical quantities (position and velocity).
Reference Experiments
Vernier Lab Book | Experiment | |
---|---|---|
Physics with Vernier | 1 | Graph Matching |
Middle School Science with Vernier | 33 | Graphing Your Motion |
Physical Science with Vernier | 35 | Graphing Your Motion |
Sensors and Equipment
Vernier Technology
- Choose an option:
- LabQuest 2, LabQuest Stream, or LabQuest Mini with Logger Pro software
- LabQuest 2
- Digital Control Unit
- Motion Detector
- LabQuest Power Supply
Output Devices
- DC water pump (such as KidWind Small Water Pump with Tubing)
- DC/120 mA lamp
- green LED (with resistor)
- red LED (with resistor)
Construction Materials
- duct tape
- cardboard
- felt sheets
- colored markers
Download Extension
The download includes student instructions, DCU tips, teacher information, and examples in PDF and Microsoft® Word® formats.
About Engineering Extension Activities
Engineering Extension Activities provide a way to add an engineering component to a Vernier science experiment. Use sensor data and Logger Pro software (or LabQuest 2) to help solve an engineering problem.