The making of our car started off with a simple idea; we were going to power our car using a solar panel and a motor to move our car. This would've demonstrated solar energy. We then planned everything out where my teammate Jack would buy the solar panel and the motors, my other teammate Tyler would buy the wheels, and I would buy the pulleys. Everything was going perfectly, we built our car and it looked great, we just needed our motor to work. After testing both the solar panel and the motors, we found out that both devices were efficient, but not compatible. We then attempted to power our vehicle by using a battery and our previous motor. After the battery not working following numerous trials, we finally resorted to using a ramp held up by multiple textbooks. By playing with the height of our ramp from adding or subtracting the number of books below the piece of wood, our car will go either faster or slower and longer or shorter distance. Although using the solar panel and motor was a more complicated idea, using a ramp was easier and way more effective.

1. Spring Potential Energy, PE spring

• Spring potential energy is potential energy measured in the compression or expansion of a spring. You can find this by using the equations F= kd or k= F/d. The units used to measure this are in n/m.

2. Gravitational Potential Energy, PE

• Gravitational potential energy us energy that an object possesses due to being at a certain height or its position in a gravitational field. You can find this by using the equation PE= mgh. The units used to measure this are in J.

3. Kinetic Energy, KE

• Kinetic energy is energy that is due to a motion. You can find this by using the equation KE= 1/2 mv². The units used to measure this are in J.

4. Thermal Energy, TE

• Thermal energy is energy that comes from heat generated by movement of particles. You can find this by using the equation TE= E total-PE-KE. The units used to measure this are in J.

5. Total Energy, E total

• The sum of a products PE and KE. This can be found by using the equation E total= PE+KE+TE. The units used to measure this are in J.

Overall this was a really good learning experience and taught me a lot of things. I think the biggest thing that I gained from this was patience and on going persistence. Although, next time I will try to stick with the most simple idea because sometimes that is what works best.

One of the biggest challenges that we faced consisted of our energy sources repetitively failing. This was a big set back for us. Next time I would like to figure out the most effective way by researching it more before we begin the project.