Roller Coaster Energy
Our Project
For this project, my team and I had the goal of demonstrating how to measure and analyze the transfers and conservation of the energy of a hot wheels car on a set track with ups and downs. We then tested if we were able to accurately calculate the landing spot of the car from any given height. We created a track out of hot wheel car tracks that started with a spring loaded launcher, a loop, and then two bumps. It finished with a drop off the table.
We were able to successfully calculate the correct landing point of the hot wheels car when given the random height of 1.17m.
Content
Energy
Gravitational Potential Energy- The amount of energy an object has stored due to its mass and its height from the surface of the Earth. We chose to use our table as the starting point for our potential energy measuring instead of the Earth. The car starts with no gravitational potential energy, but gains it as it goes up the loop and up the bumps in the track.
Kinetic Energy- The amount of energy the object has used while in motion due to its mass and velocity. The car starts with no kinetic energy as it is at rest with no velocity. It gains it throughout the time interval when it goes down the loop and down the bumps in the track.
Thermal Energy (friction)- The energy contained within a system that is responsible for the released heat. We used Thermal energy and friction synonymously as the amount of "heat" released was the same as the amount of energy released. The car began with no thermal energy as it had not moved yet, but gained it throughout the track as its wheels were sometimes hitting the sides of the track, creating friction and releasing heat.
Velocity- The speed of an object in a given direction. We measured average velocities from each point on the track where we wanted to measure the amount of kinetic energy of the car.
Acceleration- The rate of change of velocity over time. We measure the acceleration of the car from one point to the next to see how much it was speeding up or slowing down.
Springs/Rubber bands- We used a hot wheels launcher that had a rubber band attached to it in order to propel our car forwards at the beginning of the roller coaster.
Reflection
This one was of the most fun teams to work with as we all knew our place in the team and knew how to work together efficiently and successfully in order to create this project before the deadline. We did have a lot of obstacles and distractions throughout the project work time. For example, another team decided to create a roller coaster that was strung on the light fixtures and landed their hot wheels car either on our heads or on our table. Even with this and other obstacles, we were able to power through and just focus on our own success. We used our collaboration skills to plan out a roller coaster that was entertaining, but still functional and calculable.
We could have done better with our communication throughout this process, as we sometimes ended up trying to go our own ways to make this project better without first discussing it with our teammates. We did end up coming to some similar conclusions on our calculations, but there were still some discrepancys amongst our data because we couldn't agree on the same ones. Another thing we could have done better was to keep organized data. We ended up with one use google sheets with all of our data crammed, when we could have separated it some more and added more labels so that it would be easier to look back at and understand later.