This past month, we have been working on making an alternative energy vehicle. Our overall goal is to make some sort of device that can bring two rolls of pennies exactly 5 meters, or as close to that as possible. There was a great variety of vehicles made this month, going from extremely simple to extremely complex. Some groups simply made a car that rolled down a ramp to its destination, while others created extremely complex solar-powered vehicles. Both ends of the spectrum tended to work equally as effective.
My group chose a simple but effective car that works using both gravitational and spring potential energy. We used a car-like figure made of planks of wood, in which the interior was the exact width of the rolls of pennies. Attached onto the body was four big wheels, take from a remote-control car. The wheels are relatively gripping, so they provide traction on the ground, keeping the car from sliding about. Shown at right is a picture of our vehicle. Our car came to 750 grams, or about 1 1/2 pounds. To make our car travel five meters, we pull it up a 0.26 meter ramp, with 10 rubber bands attached to the bottom of the ramp. The rubber bands are in two links of 3, and one of four. The car is pulled backwards, and once it reaches the right tension and height, it is released. The ramp and rubber bands creates the exact amount of potential energy to bring the car 5 meters. You can see below a video of our car working.
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Physics Topics Used in this Project:
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Reflection:
Overall, I enjoyed this project because I was able to build and engineer a moving and working prototype for a vehicle. Being able to make an idea "come to life" is truly one of my favorite things about STEM Marin, and this project let me do that. Going through and making a list of ideas, and then watching that list turn to a blueprint, and watching that blueprint becoming something real and tangible.
This isn't meaning that this project wasn't flawed, though. My group had many difficulties along the way. We were doing very well until almost the very end. We had the whole project done early, and were left with time to spare. We had practiced and our car went exactly 5 meters every time. What we didn't think of, though, was that we had been practicing outside. We didn't think that this was an issue, but once we started practicing inside, it only made it 5 meters once every 5 or 6 times. This was because the wheels had less traction on the ground, which was causing it to slip and slide, losing velocity as it went. As the wheels lost traction, the vehicle could no longer keep a steady pace and veer off to one side. The vehicle had enough potential energy to get to the finish line, but would go "off course" and hit a backpack or student. If we had built the car for indoor conditions and not rough asphalt, I think that our car would have been extremely accurate.
We worked in these particular groups for a very long time, and I learned what to improve upon myself for next time. I learned that I need to improve my work ethic, and I can do this by creating some sort of schedule to make sure that everyone is putting in the same amount of work, and no one is doing everything while the others get distracted. This is something that happens a lot in group work, and I want to work on fixing that.
Overall, I enjoyed this project because I was able to build and engineer a moving and working prototype for a vehicle. Being able to make an idea "come to life" is truly one of my favorite things about STEM Marin, and this project let me do that. Going through and making a list of ideas, and then watching that list turn to a blueprint, and watching that blueprint becoming something real and tangible.
This isn't meaning that this project wasn't flawed, though. My group had many difficulties along the way. We were doing very well until almost the very end. We had the whole project done early, and were left with time to spare. We had practiced and our car went exactly 5 meters every time. What we didn't think of, though, was that we had been practicing outside. We didn't think that this was an issue, but once we started practicing inside, it only made it 5 meters once every 5 or 6 times. This was because the wheels had less traction on the ground, which was causing it to slip and slide, losing velocity as it went. As the wheels lost traction, the vehicle could no longer keep a steady pace and veer off to one side. The vehicle had enough potential energy to get to the finish line, but would go "off course" and hit a backpack or student. If we had built the car for indoor conditions and not rough asphalt, I think that our car would have been extremely accurate.
We worked in these particular groups for a very long time, and I learned what to improve upon myself for next time. I learned that I need to improve my work ethic, and I can do this by creating some sort of schedule to make sure that everyone is putting in the same amount of work, and no one is doing everything while the others get distracted. This is something that happens a lot in group work, and I want to work on fixing that.