Fast Car Forces Project

Evidence of Work: The goal of this project was to maximize the forces in our car. Primarily we erected our design by making it a simplistic as possible. We used a block of wood for our base and drilled holes in the side for our axles to go. We rubber banded our phone to the top of our car to measure the acceleration of We sought to increase the forces of our car in 2 ways, by increasing the angle our car was launched at and adding a rubber band force to our system. We found that increasing our angle from 15 to 25 degrees increased the net force of our car by 0.72N. Additionally, we found adding a rubber band to our system increased our net force by 5.1N.

Comparing our expected forces to the experienced forces we found on average a 10% loss of energy. 1.4N = 1.3N (4%), 5.8N = 5.1N (12%), 0.68N = 0.78N (13.5%). This is very effective compared to gasoline engines which lose about 70% of their energy. Additionally using our acceleration from our trial with the rubber band we found our car could reach 0-60mph in less than 2 seconds.

Content:

Velocity: The velocity of our object was

Acceleration: The acceleration of our object was determined using the accelerometer on my phone attached to our fast car.

Normal Force: We calculated the normal force of our object using N = mgcos(angle of ramp)

Gravitational Force: The gravitational force of our object was calculated using w = mg

Force Of Friction: The force of friction of our car was calculated using the coefficient of friction of our ramp multiplied by the normal force of our car.

Reflection:

Throughout AP Physics I would say I excelled in two main areas, collaboration and critical thinking. Primarily, through all of our projects I collaborated effectively with my peers. I often found myself taking the project manager role and as we ran experiments brainstormed designs and solutions, or helped each other solve seemingly impossible Physics problems we all collaboratively improved our knowledge on the concepts. Furthermore, I thought critically throughout the course and always strived to understand the concepts. Whenever I felt my knowledge was lacking I reached out to my peers for insight and if I was unable to grasp a concept I would ask Mr Williams. Additionally, I always caught onto concepts and adapted quickly whenever I had to reshape my thinking.

However, that is not to be said my work in the class was without its shortcomings. One of my biggest pitfalls throughout the course was my poor time management. While in the end I would always turn in good work often I would wait until the last minute to complete notes or homework problems. In the future I will strive to get my homework done early or at least segment it to reduce the work force experienced on my body by increasing the time on the assignment. (Physics Things). Moreover, sometimes I would segment my learning to memorizing how to use formulas or solving certain problem archetypes, rather than understanding the whole concept. Progressing through the courses future content I will strive to gain a complete understanding of the material to prepare myself for a variety of questions.