HYBRID CAR PROJECT
The goal of this project was to build a hybrid car that ran on an alternative energy source and could move five meters carrying 250 grams of weight.
REFLECTIONS
This was a very fun but challenging project. It was especially challenging when it came to the building of the car. My group's first idea was to make our car run off water. We brought a water wheel from home and spent many hours trying to assemble the car in a way to make it work. We had many hardships with this idea, though. First off, we had trouble attaching the wheels in a way that wouldn't disrupt the water wheel, but would keep it balanced. Another problem we ran into was attaching the bottle were the water would be coming from. After many days of building, we finally tested our machine, only to find that the water wheel was too heavy for the water to move. With only one more day left to complete our car, we destroyed our first contraption and built a new one that ran off a rubber band, using elastic energy. Our hard work paid off, too! We had a race with all the cars that the class had built. And our car won! Not bad for a car built in two days!
My group and I experienced many good and bad things together while building this car. One thing that would be considered a "peak" was that we all learned patience. With a very frustrating first car, this was essential. When something wasn't working correctly, we would all step back and think of a solution. Another peak would be the team work that our group had. We all worked together fabulously, and had different jobs for one another to get the work done faster, especially with our last minute second car. A few things that I feel we could work on was time management. That was a major problem. We spent most of our time working on our first car, and when we found that it didn't work, we all tried to build the second car as fast as we could. We didn't work on our presentation until the day of the presentation.
CONCEPTS
-ENERGY~ this is the capacity of doing work. This was the goal for our car- to create a car that ran off alternative energy instead if the usual gas. The unit is in joules, and is found with the equation work=change in potential energy=change in kinetic energy (W=PE=KE).
-POTENTIAL ENERGY~ this is energy due to gravity, and the amount of energy an object has prior to it being in motion. the unit is in joules, and is found with the equation potential energy=massxgravityxheight (PE=mgh). Our car had the potential energy of .79 J. In our car's case, potential energy is spring potential energy.
-KINETIC ENERGY~ this is energy due to movement, and is found by multiplying mass times velocity^2, divided by two (KE=1/2mv^2). The unit is in joules. The kinetic energy of our car slowly decreased per meter. 1m=.84 J 2m=.36J 3m=.5J 4m=.76J 5m=.56J
-SPRING CONSTANT~ This is the measure of the elasticity of the string. The unit is in Newton/meters, and is found with the equation force=spring constantxdistance (F=kx OR mg=kx). The spring constant of our car was 15 N/m.
-SPRING POTENTIAL ENERGY~ This is the energy due to the compression or expansion of elastic material. Also known as elastic potential energy, it's unit is joules. It is found by multiplying the spring constant by the distance squared, divided by two (PE=1/2kx^2). Our spring potential energy is .79 J.
-FRICTION~ This is a force that resists and/or affects motion. In the building of our cars, we had to reduce friction, as well as coping with it. It is measured in Newtons.
-VELOCITY~ This is speed with direction. It is found by dividing time from distance (V=d/t). Our car increased in velocity, then rapidly decreased.
The goal of this project was to build a hybrid car that ran on an alternative energy source and could move five meters carrying 250 grams of weight.
REFLECTIONS
This was a very fun but challenging project. It was especially challenging when it came to the building of the car. My group's first idea was to make our car run off water. We brought a water wheel from home and spent many hours trying to assemble the car in a way to make it work. We had many hardships with this idea, though. First off, we had trouble attaching the wheels in a way that wouldn't disrupt the water wheel, but would keep it balanced. Another problem we ran into was attaching the bottle were the water would be coming from. After many days of building, we finally tested our machine, only to find that the water wheel was too heavy for the water to move. With only one more day left to complete our car, we destroyed our first contraption and built a new one that ran off a rubber band, using elastic energy. Our hard work paid off, too! We had a race with all the cars that the class had built. And our car won! Not bad for a car built in two days!
My group and I experienced many good and bad things together while building this car. One thing that would be considered a "peak" was that we all learned patience. With a very frustrating first car, this was essential. When something wasn't working correctly, we would all step back and think of a solution. Another peak would be the team work that our group had. We all worked together fabulously, and had different jobs for one another to get the work done faster, especially with our last minute second car. A few things that I feel we could work on was time management. That was a major problem. We spent most of our time working on our first car, and when we found that it didn't work, we all tried to build the second car as fast as we could. We didn't work on our presentation until the day of the presentation.
CONCEPTS
-ENERGY~ this is the capacity of doing work. This was the goal for our car- to create a car that ran off alternative energy instead if the usual gas. The unit is in joules, and is found with the equation work=change in potential energy=change in kinetic energy (W=PE=KE).
-POTENTIAL ENERGY~ this is energy due to gravity, and the amount of energy an object has prior to it being in motion. the unit is in joules, and is found with the equation potential energy=massxgravityxheight (PE=mgh). Our car had the potential energy of .79 J. In our car's case, potential energy is spring potential energy.
-KINETIC ENERGY~ this is energy due to movement, and is found by multiplying mass times velocity^2, divided by two (KE=1/2mv^2). The unit is in joules. The kinetic energy of our car slowly decreased per meter. 1m=.84 J 2m=.36J 3m=.5J 4m=.76J 5m=.56J
-SPRING CONSTANT~ This is the measure of the elasticity of the string. The unit is in Newton/meters, and is found with the equation force=spring constantxdistance (F=kx OR mg=kx). The spring constant of our car was 15 N/m.
-SPRING POTENTIAL ENERGY~ This is the energy due to the compression or expansion of elastic material. Also known as elastic potential energy, it's unit is joules. It is found by multiplying the spring constant by the distance squared, divided by two (PE=1/2kx^2). Our spring potential energy is .79 J.
-FRICTION~ This is a force that resists and/or affects motion. In the building of our cars, we had to reduce friction, as well as coping with it. It is measured in Newtons.
-VELOCITY~ This is speed with direction. It is found by dividing time from distance (V=d/t). Our car increased in velocity, then rapidly decreased.