Summary
In this project we built a car prototype. The purpose of this was design a car that would be powered in a reliable and efficient way. My group consisted of Jack Duffin, Kyle Jones and I. We used a spring to powered our car. The spring was tied to a string which was attached an axel. So once we winded up the axel and let go, the spring would pull the string and unravel the string from the axel. This caused the wheels to spin. The goal was to have the car travel as close to five meters as possible. Keeping the car in a straight path and having a good speed were also our goals. Our car was a success in all three ways. After we built our car we made a presentation. The presentation explained why the world needs knew sources of energy for cars. Global warming and less fossil fuels were two reasons. The presentation also showed our cars stats. Speed, time, potential energy, kinetic energy, thermal energy, and acceleration were all shown on graphs. The goal of this presentation was to attract sponsors and buyers for our car. The concepts covered with this project were total, kinetic, potential, and thermal energy. Also, spring constants and wheel to axel ratios.
Reflection
This project was very interesting and enjoyable. I enjoyed building our car and seeing it work so well. I also liked the way we were able to think of any way possible to get the car to move. There were many creative ideas. Before we ended up using a spring my group had an idea for our car that failed, even though it was a really cool idea. We tried to make our car water powered. The reason we had to abandon that idea was because we couldn't figure out how to make a water tight container and tube. Also, we tried using a plastic bin for our cars frame and that didn't work because the plastic was hard to shape. I still think it was worth the effort because the idea of a water powered car is pretty cool. After the water car failed, we decided to use springs. Using springs was a lot easier because there was no liquid mess. Even though we were short on time, we managed to complete the spring car and our presentation.
One thing I did well was I was persistent. Even though my group struggled and had to try two cars, I never gave up. The water car was a great pain because we just couldn't get it to work. After trying about twenty different things for the water car, we realized it wasn't going to happen. We didn't give up though. We quickly moved on to the spring idea and our project turned into a success. One thing I gained as new skill was being a leader. I learned to over see everything and help everyone. When we were working on the spring car we were short on time. I decided that we couldn't all work on the same thing at once or else we would never finish. I told my group that we needed to all work on smaller things, then put them together to complete the whole project. This leadership helped us complete the project on time.
Even though my group completed the goal, we had to go through a lot of trouble to do so. We had to stay in almost every lunch and work. We could have planned ahead more if we didn't want to have to go through these troubles. We didn't plan ahead on how we were going to get supplies for our water car and that is why we couldn't make anything water tight. Next time I will remember to plan ahead for supplies. Another thing we could have done better was we should have began working on separate things sooner. At the beginning we all tried to work on one thing and this wasted a lot of our time. Not until the end did we realize to work on separate things. Next time we will try to start doing so right when we begin.
Concepts
The concepts covered in this project were Total Energy, Kinetic Energy, Potential Energy, thermal energy, spring constants, and wheel to axel ratios.
Total Energy- Total energy is all the energies in an object. The total energy always stays the same from beginning to end, but the energies that make the total energy may increase or decrease.
Kinetic Energy- Kinetic Energy is the energy an object has from motion.
Potential Energy- Potential energy is the stored energy in an object. Potential energy converts into kinetic energy, friction, and sound.
Thermal Energy- Energy created by friction. Essentially heat.
Spring constants-
Wheel and Axel Ratios- When you have a spinning axel that rotates a wheel, the wheel does not travel exactly like the axel. Because the wheel has a bigger circumference it travels more distance in one rotation than the axel does. We used this to find out how long our string attached to our axel needed to be. You have to find the circumference of the wheel using C=Pi x D. Once you find the circumference of the wheel, you divide the distance you want to travel by that. (5 meters in our case.) That will tell you how many rotations you need to make. You then multiply the circumference of the axel by the # of rotations. That will give you the distance the axel travels. We used that distance to figure out how much string needed to unravel the axel.
In this project we built a car prototype. The purpose of this was design a car that would be powered in a reliable and efficient way. My group consisted of Jack Duffin, Kyle Jones and I. We used a spring to powered our car. The spring was tied to a string which was attached an axel. So once we winded up the axel and let go, the spring would pull the string and unravel the string from the axel. This caused the wheels to spin. The goal was to have the car travel as close to five meters as possible. Keeping the car in a straight path and having a good speed were also our goals. Our car was a success in all three ways. After we built our car we made a presentation. The presentation explained why the world needs knew sources of energy for cars. Global warming and less fossil fuels were two reasons. The presentation also showed our cars stats. Speed, time, potential energy, kinetic energy, thermal energy, and acceleration were all shown on graphs. The goal of this presentation was to attract sponsors and buyers for our car. The concepts covered with this project were total, kinetic, potential, and thermal energy. Also, spring constants and wheel to axel ratios.
Reflection
This project was very interesting and enjoyable. I enjoyed building our car and seeing it work so well. I also liked the way we were able to think of any way possible to get the car to move. There were many creative ideas. Before we ended up using a spring my group had an idea for our car that failed, even though it was a really cool idea. We tried to make our car water powered. The reason we had to abandon that idea was because we couldn't figure out how to make a water tight container and tube. Also, we tried using a plastic bin for our cars frame and that didn't work because the plastic was hard to shape. I still think it was worth the effort because the idea of a water powered car is pretty cool. After the water car failed, we decided to use springs. Using springs was a lot easier because there was no liquid mess. Even though we were short on time, we managed to complete the spring car and our presentation.
One thing I did well was I was persistent. Even though my group struggled and had to try two cars, I never gave up. The water car was a great pain because we just couldn't get it to work. After trying about twenty different things for the water car, we realized it wasn't going to happen. We didn't give up though. We quickly moved on to the spring idea and our project turned into a success. One thing I gained as new skill was being a leader. I learned to over see everything and help everyone. When we were working on the spring car we were short on time. I decided that we couldn't all work on the same thing at once or else we would never finish. I told my group that we needed to all work on smaller things, then put them together to complete the whole project. This leadership helped us complete the project on time.
Even though my group completed the goal, we had to go through a lot of trouble to do so. We had to stay in almost every lunch and work. We could have planned ahead more if we didn't want to have to go through these troubles. We didn't plan ahead on how we were going to get supplies for our water car and that is why we couldn't make anything water tight. Next time I will remember to plan ahead for supplies. Another thing we could have done better was we should have began working on separate things sooner. At the beginning we all tried to work on one thing and this wasted a lot of our time. Not until the end did we realize to work on separate things. Next time we will try to start doing so right when we begin.
Concepts
The concepts covered in this project were Total Energy, Kinetic Energy, Potential Energy, thermal energy, spring constants, and wheel to axel ratios.
Total Energy- Total energy is all the energies in an object. The total energy always stays the same from beginning to end, but the energies that make the total energy may increase or decrease.
Kinetic Energy- Kinetic Energy is the energy an object has from motion.
Potential Energy- Potential energy is the stored energy in an object. Potential energy converts into kinetic energy, friction, and sound.
Thermal Energy- Energy created by friction. Essentially heat.
Spring constants-
Wheel and Axel Ratios- When you have a spinning axel that rotates a wheel, the wheel does not travel exactly like the axel. Because the wheel has a bigger circumference it travels more distance in one rotation than the axel does. We used this to find out how long our string attached to our axel needed to be. You have to find the circumference of the wheel using C=Pi x D. Once you find the circumference of the wheel, you divide the distance you want to travel by that. (5 meters in our case.) That will tell you how many rotations you need to make. You then multiply the circumference of the axel by the # of rotations. That will give you the distance the axel travels. We used that distance to figure out how much string needed to unravel the axel.