The objective of this project was to build a prototype for an energy efficient car. For this project, my group consisted of Isabelle, Christian, Leo and myself. We had to make the car go exactly five meters with 250 grams. All gas powered motors were not to be used because of fossil fuel that has to due with pollution. Thats why we use an alternate power source like rubber band, springs or rat traps. Our group used a strong spring to run our hybrid car. Our pitch was a slide show, verbal presentation and a super video of our Mambo.
Document may come soon ! The real one was to big to fit on the website !
We had many ideas for our car. First we were going to have a rubber band powered car but our frame was to small and it could break. Then we had the idea of a tower with a mass at the end to move our car but it just didn't work whatsoever. I think that there was a lot of friction and that our car was not super stable to control those heavy weights. Then, like halfway into the project we decided to use a big long spring. That was our idea and we built our car with a long back so the spring could connect to the end with string. We would keep winding it up around the axel until no more string left because we figured out our MA and had the perfect amount of string to go 5 meters. We had a great presentation and but our car only went 4 meters.
Reflection:
This project was a really stressful one for me and my group. It was a real mental and physical challenge for us. We all can up with great ideas but it was hard choosing the right one. Later in the project, time management was not going our way and that is one of the main things that effected our group. We kept changing our ideas and after our second car we finally had our solution and that was MAMBO. We kept tweaking and building and it was one thing that I really enjoyed about this project. Still, we had some conflicts but we all got over it in a good way. I thought our group really worked well together and that we all learned different ways that people work. We stayed on task and did a great job in the end, with all the cooperation.
Concepts:
Acceleration: Acceleration is the rate which the object speeds up.
Thermal Energy: Thermal Energy Is part of the total kinetic and potential energy.
It is created by friction.
Kinetic Energy: Kinetic Energy is the amount of energy during motion, (Really Potential Energy transfers into Kinetic)
Potential Energy: Potential Energy is the energy being stored by a force. (Electricity, Gravity)
Spring Constant: The force needed to to stretch or press a spring. Changes if spring is smaller or shorter.
Friction: Friction is the resistance between to objects moving over each other.