Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My ap bio teacher makes us do semester projects...which have to take a lot of time. The past examples he showed us were huge models of like...a fetus someone carved or the mesophyll layer or whatever...so basically u have to make a model/poster that takes a lot of time

MY IDEA: An electron transport system with a bunch of model protein carriers..and like i drop a ball or something that passes through each...does anyone know how to build something to make it so that when the ball (electron) passes through or bounces on a certain spot...it'll trigger some release of something?? like i want a proton to jump out of it! or like a little flag to pop up or SOMETHING to indicate that the passing makes the proton go through!

hopefully that was a good explanation..but here's a sight with the animation that i want to make

http://www.sp.uconn.edu/~terry/images/anim/ETS.html

i'd appreciate ur help! thanks

Hello!

This sounds like a very interesting project. Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to make a flag pop out. However, you can try making a little light turn on. First, you make a switch. To do this you would connect wires to two nails. A paper clip will activate the switch. Before the ball passes the paper clip would be up, but when the ball passses it the paper clip will fall down and land on the other nail, and complete the circuit. I know this is a bit confusing.

djdljslkdjdksljldskjkldsjldsjldjskldjsljdslk
__________________________
__________________________o/_o______

Sorry...diagrams are very hard to draw when you are just using the keyboard. Okay, here is the explanation. The lines represent the tube. The "o" represents the nail head. The "/" represents the upright paperclip. So, when the ball passes the paperclip, it should knock it over and complete the circuit. Now, you should look up how to connect the wires to make an electrical circuit, and hopefully everything will make sense.

Hope this helps!

P.S. Ignore the white font!

Hello again!

CLARIFICATION: HERE IS A SITE TO CLARIFY THINGS:

http://gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/elect/

When you press battery and switch, it will show you a better diagram about what I was trying to draw.

To make a complete circuit:
1. press "add wire for simple circuit"
2. press " battery and switch"
3. press "complete simple circuit"
4. press "switch on/off"

Hope this clarified things a bit better!