Fast Car Forces

Evidence of Work:

For this project, our group was tasked with creating a car and finding all the forces that act on it in 5 different scenarios. The first is to find different motion forces when the car is being pulled by a constant velocity using a spring scale. We found the force of friction using the coefficient of friction and the normal force. The second scenario is how acceleration would be affected when the weight is increased or decreased, and the force stays the same. We graphed our data to find that as weight increases, acceleration decreases. In our third part, we calculated the coefficients of friction using a derivation of the equation, F(friction) = μF(Normal). Our fourth section of the project had us place the car on a ramp and see which forces affected it and show that using a free body diagram. For the final part, we placed as many forces on the car to make it go as fast as possible. We made a slingshot for the car and made the ramp steeper to make the car go as fast as possible. Below is our slideshow containing pictures of our car, all the calculations, and all of our graphs.

Fast Car Forces Project

Content:

  • Forces and Newton's Second Law:

    • Newton's second law states that the force of an object is equal to its mass times acceleration (F=ma). We learned about many different forces in this project including:

      • Force of gravity: equal to mass times acceleration due to gravity, 9.8m/s^. We used this in sections 4 and 5 especially, but also in parts 1 and 3.

      • Force normal: equal to the forces pulling it down if it is not sinking through the floor. Most of the time, it is equal to force of gravity as long as no other downward forces act upon the object. We used normal force to get force of friction in part 3. We also used normal force in parts 1, 4, and 5 for the free body diagrams.

      • Force of friction: a force that always opposes motion. It can be calculated by multiplying the normal force by the coefficient of friction which is a constant. That constant is different depending on the 2 materials that contact to make the friction. We used this in part 3 to get coefficient of friction. We also calculated this force in part 1, 4 and 5.

  • Motion Components:

    • Velocity: the speed of an object that can be calculated by finding the change in distance divided by the change in time. This was mainly used in part 5 where our task was to make the car go as fast as possible, in other words, increase its velocity as much as possible.

    • Acceleration: the change in velocity over time. If an object has a positive acceleration, it is gaining velocity. Negative acceleration means slowing down. We used this in every section to find force using F=ma where a is equal to acceleration.

  • Friction:

    • Friction is the heat created when two objects rub against each other. This is a force that we calculated but is an important concept to consider with things like where thermal energy comes from.

  • Air Resistance: This is the "drag" an object experiences when free falling through the air. It is calculated using the equation D=1/2CpAv^2. Where C is equal to coefficient of drag (1/2), p is equal to air density (1.2 g/L), and A is equal to the area of the object. While this wasn't a component of this project, it was an important concept to understand.

Reflection:

What I Did Well: This is my best project so far in this class and it was mainly due to my group members and I all collaborating well. We were able to get all of our calculations with ease due to the 6C of collaboration that we exhibited. Quinn and I did lots of the work getting the numbers down while we had Vaughn write them extra neat so they could be included on the slideshow. I really excelled in the calculations piece, I was able to get all the numbers we needed for the free body diagrams especially. The slideshow was another reflection of our collaboration. Quinn and I helped get most of the data onto the slideshow while Vaughn organized the slideshow to look as nice as it did. I helped Vaughn with all the google sheets we needed to do for part 2. I thought that I played a good role in the group project and I felt like everyone contributed to the project equally which is why I am proud this was my first 5 on a project. I felt like this one was earned especially when going back and seeing how clear our presentation was to an audience because of how easy to follow it was.

What I Need To Work On: I am really bad at presenting. Sometimes I just get nervous and stumble over my words or forget where my thoughts are going but I need to work on it. I feel like as a whole that was definitely the weakest part about the project for me. My other group members did a great job but I felt like I wasn't being confident enough when I was presenting. Practicing presenting in front of a crowd is the only way to get better at it and while I struggled this time, in the future I will work towards bettering myself at that.