Knolling – Chaeji Kim & Allison Chan

For our knolling assignment, we took apart a pencil sharpener. It was interesting to note how few pieces the actually pencil sharpener was made up of. There was no processor, and only sensors and actuators that made up how this pencil sharpener worked.

One particular piece that stood out was the rectifier, which is a device that converts alternating current into direct current. In class, we found out that this device was the cheapest way for changing the currents.

The pencil sharpener itself had two main sensors that would both need to be turned on in order for the pencil to actually sharpen. One was pushing the pencil into the hole (triggered by a small button on the side), and the other was a safety sensor that would only turn on if the protective cover was inserted. 

Though the mechanics of a pencil sharpener seemed difficult to understand at first, we were surprised at how simple the system worked after taking the pieces apart and examining them ourselves.