Alternative Energy Vehicle
Our task:
My group for this project was Ben, Jake, and I and the task we had to complete was to design, build, and present our new vehicle that converts stored energy (PE) into forward motion (KE). It could be any type of PE except for nuclear and chemical. The vehicle had to travel 5m and safely transport two passengers (rolls of 50 pennies) in order to complete the goal of this assignment.
Our process:
This process felt very long because there were two parts to the project. The first one was building a trebuchet and I thought that was very fun. It was only a week or two and time flew by fast. We were kind of behind for that project since ours didn't go anywhere the first few test launches. That made it hard for us to find any calculations because ours barely moved. But once we made the 8 modifications to our trebuchet, it went much further and we were able to get back on track.
Then it came time to switch projects. The second part was the alternative energy vehicle. My group was the same and I think overall we were a pretty good team. There were some days where we didn't get much done but other days where we got so much completed. They made the process very fun and building the car was a blast. We only had a few weeks to build our vehicle, do all of the calculations, and make our slideshow for the final presentation. And we were definitely behind for this part. We had one completely different idea at the start of this project. At first we wanted to use wind energy to power our car, but we realized that was unrealistic because we wouldn't be able to find a balloon big enough to move it. So then we had to come up with a second idea which happened to be spring energy. This is where we used rubber bands to power our vehicle instead of a balloon. We stuck with this idea since it actually worked and the rest of the project was much easier from here on.
Content:
Spring Potential Energy- this is the energy stored in an object due to expansion or compression (elastic PE). The equation is PEspring=1/2kx^2, where k is the spring constant. This is measured in J.
Total Energy- this is the total amount of energy an object has. It is found by adding up all of the energies of that object (measured in J).
Velocity vs. Time- this is the relationship between the velocity (m/s) our car has every second it is traveling on the ground.
Gravitational Potential Energy- the energy stored in an object as the result of its vertical position (height). Gravitational PE depends on the mass and the height. We had no PEg since our vehicle stayed on the ground the whole time so its height was 0m (PEg=mgh).
Thermal Energy- this is energy transferred to heat. The equation is TE= total E - PE - KE. This is measured in J too and once energy is transferred to thermal energy, it can't transfer into any other type of energy.
Acceleration vs. Time- this is the relationship between the acceleration (m/s^2) our car has per second it is traveling.
Kinetic Energy- this is energy due to motion. The equation is KE=1/2mv^2. This is also measured in J.
Distance vs. Time- this is the relationship between the distance our car travels per meter to the time in seconds it takes for our vehicle to travel each meter.
Rotational Inertia- this depends on the mass distribution from the center in an object. More mass on the outside = more rotational inertia and vice versa. A low rotational inertia means an object is easier to start so it'll move faster, while a high rotational inertia means an object is harder to start so it'll move slower but also be harder to stop.
Calculations + Graphs:
*our car went 5.7 meters, so all of these calculations are based off of that distance*
Reflection:
This was one of my favorite projects because I thought it was the perfect length and building the car was so fun. At first when we got to somewhat choose our groups I was afraid that my group would goof off the whole time and not get any work done the whole project. But this happened to be only partially true. We did goof off a lot, however we ended up getting work done every day too so it all played out well. There are definitely a few topics in the 6 C's that I could improve on for the next project. The first category of the 6 C's that I need to work on is my communication. I talk a lot so I excel in that part of communication, but I need to get better at not ignoring my team some days and actually making sure to listen to what they have to say or the questions they ask. There are many times where I get annoyed easily and decide to just shut everyone out because boys happen to be a pain sometimes. But my worst quality in communication is just not answering the dumb questions they have. I need to learn to respect them and help my team out even if they don't understand many things.
Another category in the 6 C's that I can improve on is the conscientious learning topic. I think most people need to work on their time management skills, but mine are especially bad. I procrastinate so much on every project and homework assignment I get. I have been getting better though and I plan to be a pro at managing my time by the end of this year.
Although there are plenty of things I need to work on, there are also quite a few parts that I am good at. I think I was pretty good at collaborating. I was definitely the leader of this group. I do admit that I was a little bit bossy, but that is part of being a leader so I was only doing my job. My collaboration was good because I completed my work load and evenly distributed the remaining work with my other group members.
I would also say that I didn't do too bad in the critical thinking category since I was able to justify many answers and find solutions to every problem we had. I have improved in this one because I used to ask so many questions and I barely even thought about things deeply before needing help. But this project helped me and now I have learned to think much harder about an issue because I will most likely be able to find an answer myself instead of using the teacher every time. I can't wait for the next project since I know I will improve even more in all of the 6 C's categories.