Test It!
The last step in the design process is to test your model to see if it can achieve its perceived goal and reach the expectations set in the beginning. The rubber band racer had to be able to complete four different tasks in order to pass its set expectations. It had to be able to travel and then stop at a distance of 3 meters. The racer had to travel in a straight line. There were also two competitions, the greatest distance and the fastest velocity.
Final Racer and Results
Our rubber band racer design ended up being completely functional and was able to exceed all of its four original set expectations. Each event was tested three timer. The first event we competed in was the accuracy test. The racer had to travel to distance of exactly three meters or be able to stop withing a foot of the line. The second event was the straightest line test. The racer had to travel a distance of four meters in a straight line. It had to be within a foot of the center line. The third event was the greatest distance, measured in meters. The last event was the fastest speed over the distance of two meters, calculated into meters per second. The last two events consisted of all of the teams in the class racing against one another.
The following chart is of the data collected from the three trials of each event.
The speeds were 0.83 m/s for Trial 1, 0.84 m/s for Trial 2, and 0.80 m/s for Trial 3. We mainly utilized the formula for speed which is speed=distance/time. The distance for all trials was 2 meters. The time for Trial 1 was 3 seconds. The time for Trial 2 was 2.97 seconds. The time for Trial 3 was 3.13 seconds. The calculations for the speed event trials were as follows:
TRIAL ONE
TIME = 3 seconds
SPEED = 2 m/3 s
SPEED = 0.83 m/s
TRIAL TWO
TIME = 2.97 seconds
SPEED = 2 m/2.97 s
SPEED = 0.84 m/s
TRIAL THREE
TIME = 3.13 seconds
SPEED = 2 m/3.13 s
SPEED = 0.08 m/s
The following video is a mashup of the recordings we took of the trials. The first clip is of our pre-events stage where we simply tested if it functioned and how far the racer can travel. The rest of the clips are of the events and the different trials. They follow the same order as the order of events.