The goal was to try and toss the rope so that the magnet end would attach to the metal cylinder and then try to use the rope to get the cylinder to move. The magnets were not THAT strong though... if you pulled the rope too hard or too quickly, the magnet would just pull off of the cylinder. So it became a good lesson for the kids (and the adults) about how to gently ease the cylinder one way or the other, sometimes in conjunction with other people who were also pulling from different points around the railing. If you worked together, you could get the cylinder moving in a circle, which was pretty fun.
The kids and I had fun with the exhibit at MOSI and so I decided to try and build some sort of game at home that would replicate some of the lessons about magnetism and inertia. What I came up with is the magnet game seen below:
Our rules for the game were as follows. You had to swing the magnet and try to get it to land so that the magnet would attach to the cynlinder. This wasn't always easy because the magnet was only attached to the end of a piece of dowel -- you needed the dowel to strike the cylinder at a right angle to get the magnet to stick well. Then, using the cord, you pulled the cylinder back as far as you could, in any direction, until the magnetic bond broke. As the cylinder swung forward, the goal was to knock down as many game pieces (dowels) as possible in your turn. There were seven of the game pieces around the board - the record so far for the most pieces knocked over was five.
Below is a short video of the game in action:
This was a fairly entertaining game and I like that it taught practical lessons about the physical world. Like all projects though, as soon as I finished it I recognized things that I would have done differently if I could do it over. The primary problem is that the tower from which the cylinder is swinging is within the radius of the arc of the the cylinder's swing. Ideally the cylinder should be able to swing freely anywhere in the circle without bumping into the tower. Like I said, if I could build it over again... Anyway, it was a fun project to build and a fun game to play with!