Alternative Energy Vehicle
Evidence of Work
Description:
Our assignment from the engineers at Hyundai was to create a vehicle using an alternative energy source that was not chemical or nuclear. The vehicle had to go 5 meters on a smooth floor while transporting $1 in pennies, which weighed about 250 grams. For our project, we decided to use the power of gravity to propel our car. We made sketches and blue prints and whatnot, and then we headed up to the maker space to start constructing our vehicle. We started by making a chassis with plywood, dowels and CD's, and then we attached a PVC pipe with a pulley and weight attached. The weight had a a string that went through the pulley and wrapped around the axle so that the wheels would turn as the weight fell down. We went through many tests to perfect our car. And in the end, we had our fully completed vehicle. It didn't look that good, but it worked just fine.
Content
Gravitational Potential Energy:
Gravitational potential energy is the energy an object has based on its altitude. This energy is caused by gravity, and it is present when the object is not touching the ground. Gravitational potential energy is calculated by multiplying the mass of the object, acceleration of gravity, and the height of the object from the ground. The unit of PE is in Joules, and the maximum potential energy of our vehicle was 4.14344 Joules of energy.
Kinetic Energy:
Kinetic energy is the energy that is present in an object when it is in motion. This energy is caused by motion itself. It is calculated by taking half the mass of the object and multiplying it by the velocity of the object squared. So, our vehicle's maximum kinetic energy was 0.9782268431 Joules of energy.
Total Energy:
Total energy is the total amount of energy present in the vehicle through out the whole run of the track. Total energy is equal to the original potential energy because all energy is transferred. The total energy of our vehicle was 4.14344 Joules of energy.
Thermal Energy:
Thermal energy is the energy that is lost in the transfer between potential and kinetic energy. The thermal energy is calculated by subtracting the kinetic and potential energies from the total energy.
Distance vs. Time:
This is the the distance traveled over the amount of time it took to go that far for our vehicle's run. It is calculated by graphing distance over time. Here is a graph showing the distance vs. time of our vehicle over the whole run of the track:
Velocity vs. Time:
This is the speed of our vehicle during the run compared to the time of the run. The result is is this graph that shows the car getting faster and faster and then slowly coming back to a stop:
Reflection
In this project I learned many new things about myself. Mainly, what I was good at and what I needed to work on in the classroom. One of the things I learned that I was pretty good at was my ability to lead my teammates in the right direction. I was able to delegate and split up the work between my teammates and myself, I would help to keep everyone on task when I could and I would listen to my teammates' proposals and ideas. For example, when we were trying to figure out how to power our vehicle without using chemical or nuclear energy, Jesse, one of my teammates, came up with the great idea to use weight and the power of gravity. If I had not been willing to try or even listen to Jesse's idea, and instead had been my usual stubborn self, our team would not have been successful like it is now. Another thing I got pretty good at was solution finding. I would look at a problem that was going on with our vehicle and immediately start to think of an idea to fix it or even make it better. For example, when the string tied to the axle on our car would not catch, I thought of the idea to hot glue the string to the axle so that it would wrap around the axle.
One thing I need to work on in the classroom is cooperation. I am usually pretty stubborn and I am not that considerate of other people's intellect, even if I know it is greater than mine. I usually have an unreasonable dislike for other people's idea's when I'm grumpy and irrational, except for when I know that the idea is probably going to work. For example, I got into a little yelling match with Jesse about the power source of our car after his idea of weight had failed so many times. I kept insisting that we use rubber bands and he kept insisting that we use his idea of weight. He just wanted a little more time to fix the car, but I was too uncooperative, so I took the car and put rubber bands on it and it failed miserably. Jesse then put the weight back on and made it work, and I was left humiliated and angry. Another thing I need to work on is my empathy. I am unfortunately not that considerate of other people's feelings, especially when they tick me off. I have a hard time understanding people's needs and wants, so I just ignore them. And I'm definitely not the nicest person when I'm not happy about something.
I have definitely learned a lot about my self this project and I hope to improve myself in the next one.