Alternative Energy Vehicle
Our Task
The point of this project was to build an alternate energy vehicle that is not powered by gas, batteries, chemical energy, or nuclear energy. But, it has to get as close to 5 meters as possible. The car is supposed to carry 2 penny cases.
About the Car
Our car is a piece of plywood that has been cut to our liking. We put our wheel and axle in the front and back. Our wheels are made of CD's with some protective foam on the outside. Our passengers are on the side with some cardboard around it. The car is powered by spring to PE.
The Iterations of Our Car
We had to get to 5m as close as possible. Our first try was about 6m, we tried to find out what it was. Our car went by a rubber band wrapping around our back tires. We had it at around 15 wraps, we realised that it would be better if we would of done less wraps. We spent a couple days to figure out the amount of warps we needed. We had the tires also more circular so it could go smoother. We cut it down to a perfect circle with a protectial foam around the outside of it. At the end, we had it at 5m exactlly.
Distance vs. Time - Since the slope of this graph is the distance traveled over time it took to travel, then the slope is velocity of the car. V= d/t
See the D vs T graph on slide 4 above
Velocity vs. Time - Since the slope of this graph is the velocity of the car over the time it took to travel, then the slope of the graph is the change in velocity (acceleration) of the car. A = V/T
See the V vs T graph on slide 5 above
Acceleration vs. Time - When the slope of the graph goes up, that means that the car is accelerating . When the slope goes down, that means that the car is gragually decselrating.
See the A vs Time graph on slide 6 above
Energy vs. Time - The spring potential energy is the energy that the rubber band has stored up in the beginning, and it gradually decreases. Kinetic energy is the energy of the movement, and increases very gradually. Total energy is the maximum amount of the energy stored up at the beginning and stays constant. Finally, thermal energy is the remaining energy that runs off due to the friction and heat that is against the ground.
What we did Well
We worked hard and never gave up on ourselves or the project. If we had something to fix, we would do it without stopping. We also got along with each other. We would work and still have fun with ourselves.
What we Could of Improved On
We could of improved on the deceration of the project. We did not have any really art on our car, its just plain. We looked at our other groups and saw that we were missing something. It worked well, but it just does not look that apealing.
Reflection
I liked this project because I worked with my friends and we got along. We had a decent time to do it, we worked well together. I liked that we had time and enough materials.