For this project, as you can already tell, we had to make a car that would run on alternative forms of energy. Seems easy, doesn't it? Well, one restriction was that we couldn't harness the energy of chemical reactions, and the second obstacle of this project was that we had to come up with performance graphs showing things like the potential energy and kinetic energy of our cars. But I would say that my group had plenty of time to finish our project, so time wasn't much of a concern, but I would estimate that we had two or three planning days, nine days to work on the cars, and another three days to work on our sales pitch and performance graphs. Most of our time wasn't managed well, since it was actually us working on three different cars at the same time, and since we only had three people in our group, we didn't work collectively.
In terms of our two cars, we had our first car, the Snapper Mk. II, operate on two mousetraps, which would pull a long arm that would unravel a string wound up around the back axle, thereby causing the wheels to rotate. Our second car, the WindWaker, was propelled by compressed air, and the main chassis was a SodaStream bottle, and we had a thumbtack hold in the air so that the air wouldn't just escape from the hole. Initially, we planned to have a third car, which was dubbed the "Blade Rider" that would operate on a propeller placed at the front, but that would have been too weak to carry the 250 grams. Ultimately, our presentation contained the energy values and speeds of the two cars, as well as the costs of both and special features. We also ran both of the cars in the class, and while the Snapper Mk. II made it to 4 2/3 meters, we didn't pump the WindWaker enough, so it barely reached 1 1/2 meters...
Physics Concepts:
Kinetic Energy-The energy an object has due to it's motion: in this project, we often found the kinetic energy of both the cars, for example, the peak kinetic energy of the Snapper Mk.II- KE=1/2*.544kg*(1.145m/s)^2, KE=.356J
Elastic Potential Energy- The amount of energy stored in a spring or elastic thing by pulling or pushing it. For example, we found the potential energy of the Snapper Mk.II by using PE=1/2*3240N/m*.017m^2 , PE=.422J
Pressure-The force over a given area. This was crucial for us to find the potential energy of the WindWaker, using the formula PE=p*v,
in which PE=.156 J
Velocity-The rate of covered distance in a direction. For both of our cars, we calculated velocities at each meter, e.g. v=1m/1.493s, v=.67m/s
Other concepts that we incorporated included geometry, which was used in finding the angles of the arm of the Snapper Mk.II so that we could find the potential energy at that instance.
Reflection:
I don't really know how to describe this project, because it wasn't our worst, but it also wasn't the best we could do. We started off on a pretty good foot, with our plans set within the first few days, and we thought that we could have gotten all three of the cars finished in time with performance graphs. But that's the point where things started to go south, with the propeller car being unable to work properly, and our compressed air car being quite unpredictable and at some points not even at school. There was a short period in which we had gotten really off track, where just one person was working on the mouse trap car, because that was the only one at school, so I truly wish that we could have stayed more focused. During this project, I learned that I am actually better working independently and get more done than if I was working with James and Collin, and it was times like the ones where the two were helping Matt's group that I realized that I was productive on my own. Another thing I learned is that I get too controlling of these projects, with an example being when I essentially prevented James from working on his own car, which was somewhat detrimental to our working rate. Next time, I should really work on being less controlling and possessive of a project, because it only slows our project down. Another thing that I could work on is staying on track, because I often goof off with my group members, or if I am working at home, something or another distracts me, reducing my overall productivity. But there's always a silver lining in these types of projects. The first was that the three of us got a lot done on Sunday, the last day of break, including pretty much the entire presentation and car data, and also a lot the first time we met up at Collin's house, where we got the compressed air car working. Another was the fact that we got a week-long extension, which basically saved our skins and enabled us to put out a much better presentation than that of the one we had on Friday, but we probably shouldn't be too reliant on that option anymore.
In terms of our two cars, we had our first car, the Snapper Mk. II, operate on two mousetraps, which would pull a long arm that would unravel a string wound up around the back axle, thereby causing the wheels to rotate. Our second car, the WindWaker, was propelled by compressed air, and the main chassis was a SodaStream bottle, and we had a thumbtack hold in the air so that the air wouldn't just escape from the hole. Initially, we planned to have a third car, which was dubbed the "Blade Rider" that would operate on a propeller placed at the front, but that would have been too weak to carry the 250 grams. Ultimately, our presentation contained the energy values and speeds of the two cars, as well as the costs of both and special features. We also ran both of the cars in the class, and while the Snapper Mk. II made it to 4 2/3 meters, we didn't pump the WindWaker enough, so it barely reached 1 1/2 meters...
Physics Concepts:
Kinetic Energy-The energy an object has due to it's motion: in this project, we often found the kinetic energy of both the cars, for example, the peak kinetic energy of the Snapper Mk.II- KE=1/2*.544kg*(1.145m/s)^2, KE=.356J
Elastic Potential Energy- The amount of energy stored in a spring or elastic thing by pulling or pushing it. For example, we found the potential energy of the Snapper Mk.II by using PE=1/2*3240N/m*.017m^2 , PE=.422J
Pressure-The force over a given area. This was crucial for us to find the potential energy of the WindWaker, using the formula PE=p*v,
in which PE=.156 J
Velocity-The rate of covered distance in a direction. For both of our cars, we calculated velocities at each meter, e.g. v=1m/1.493s, v=.67m/s
Other concepts that we incorporated included geometry, which was used in finding the angles of the arm of the Snapper Mk.II so that we could find the potential energy at that instance.
Reflection:
I don't really know how to describe this project, because it wasn't our worst, but it also wasn't the best we could do. We started off on a pretty good foot, with our plans set within the first few days, and we thought that we could have gotten all three of the cars finished in time with performance graphs. But that's the point where things started to go south, with the propeller car being unable to work properly, and our compressed air car being quite unpredictable and at some points not even at school. There was a short period in which we had gotten really off track, where just one person was working on the mouse trap car, because that was the only one at school, so I truly wish that we could have stayed more focused. During this project, I learned that I am actually better working independently and get more done than if I was working with James and Collin, and it was times like the ones where the two were helping Matt's group that I realized that I was productive on my own. Another thing I learned is that I get too controlling of these projects, with an example being when I essentially prevented James from working on his own car, which was somewhat detrimental to our working rate. Next time, I should really work on being less controlling and possessive of a project, because it only slows our project down. Another thing that I could work on is staying on track, because I often goof off with my group members, or if I am working at home, something or another distracts me, reducing my overall productivity. But there's always a silver lining in these types of projects. The first was that the three of us got a lot done on Sunday, the last day of break, including pretty much the entire presentation and car data, and also a lot the first time we met up at Collin's house, where we got the compressed air car working. Another was the fact that we got a week-long extension, which basically saved our skins and enabled us to put out a much better presentation than that of the one we had on Friday, but we probably shouldn't be too reliant on that option anymore.