Here’s a robot that can rock out. Fastythefastcat built a robot out of Lego Mindstorms pieces that plays a real song on the guitar! As we see in this video, a robot arm drags a tooth-shaped tip across the strings; at the other end, 6 Lego pieces push down the strings in the right spots to play groups of notes, called “chords.” Next thing we know, the robot’s going to ask for a trumpet.
Wee ones: What numbers would you say to count the 6 strings on that guitar?
Little kids: If the robot needs 6 “fingers” to press on the strings and 1 more finger to play them, how many fingers touch the strings? Bonus: In the verses the robot plays just 3 chords (sets of musical notes): A minor, F, C, then it returns to A minor to repeat. Which chord is the 8th chord it plays?
Big kids: If the robot uses 8 gears and twice as many beams (stick pieces), how many total pieces is that? Bonus: If the robot repeated this 4-chord set the whole time — A minor, F, C, G — which chord would be the 80th one played?
Answers:
Wee ones: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
Little kids: 7 “fingers.” Bonus: F.
Big kids: 24 pieces, since it uses 16 beams. Bonus: G, since 80 is a multiple of 4 and G lands on all the multiples of 4.
