The Lovable Idiot
An alternative energy car is, as the name suggests a vehicle that runs on a source of power besides fossil fuels. In this project we made a model car that had to be able to drive 5 meters on its own with no outside help. Me and my group had the idea to make a car that ran off of spring power. the best way that we found to do this was with rubber bands. As we were blue printing we realized that the best way to have the least friction on the axles was to make a large body with two side panels that were the only points of contact with the axles. Our car runs by pulling a rubber band that is attached to the back of the car to the front and wrapping it around the front axle. When the car is set down and released the band unwraps pulling the axle so that it spins moving the car forward. When we were testing the car we realized that the wheels weren't cut out perfectly and made the car wobble side to side as it rolled. This made me link of the name "The Lovable Idiot" and it just stuck.
ReflectionsIn reflection I learned a lot how to calculate the velocity of a moving object and how to put together a working vehicle. I also learned about how most cars work and how to convert energy into velocity. But me and my group definitely weren't managing our time properly and I'm sure that in our future projects we will all remember to make at least a ruff out line or time table. Getting along with this group was fairly easy but all of us had trouble motivating ourselves from time to time. For me this was one of my favorite project so far this semester.
EquationsWe used these equations to find out the what we needed to know about the acceleration, and kinetic emergy for our presentation: v=d/t We used this to find how fast it velocity between every meter mark. KE=1/2mv2 We had to use this to get the Kinetic energy that the vehicle was creating during its travel. special concepts that we usedPotential Energy of the Spring (PE sub spring):
F=kd k=F/d N/m Spring Constant (Resistance) (k): Measure of how difficult it is to expand and compress the spring. Elastic PE= 1/2kx²; x= distance spring is compressed or expanded. The energy stored in a spring when it is compressed and expanded. |
Blueprint
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