Introduction- During this project we made a Hybrid Car, not using chemical or nuclear activity. That means we cannot use batteries, chemical mixtures, and many other materials. Since our materials were limited, it made it more difficult to decide which path we would taking in engineering our car. Mackenzie, Ryan, Josh and I decided on a rubber bands and a slam forward car that I will go more in depth later in the project response
Materials Used- -Nails and Screws -4 Wheels -6 Rubber Bands -4 Pegs - 2 Main Boards -2 Supporting Boards -Sac to Carry Weights and Masses -2 Handle Boards -A Cabinet Slider
Creation Record- -For a little over 1/3 of the time we built the base of the car ~We screwed two cabinet sliders onto our supporting pieces of wood ~Then we screwed the supporting pieces onto the main wood ~We fit our cabinet sliders together -We spent another 1/3 attaching accessories and testing/tweaking ~One day we attached and straightened the wheels ~Another we attached pegs and rubber bands ~We attached handles to make the ignition easier ~Finally we attached a sac to hold weight -The last barely 1/3 of the time we did calculations and presentation ~We found Kenetic, Potential, Thermal, and Total Energy as well as time
Calculations- Concepts Potential Energy- the energy in an object due to its position relative to others, energy stored within itself, or height.
Potential Energy of A Spring- this is the energy stored due to the deformation of an object. In our case a rubber band being stretched between two pegs
Kinetic Energy- energy due to motion. The equation for Kinetic Energy is KE=1/2 x mass x velocity squared. This was the force making the car move.
Spring Constant- a measure of how easily a spring is compresses and expanded, or in our case the strength of the rubber band. To find this we used Spring Constant=Force/Distance
Thermal Energy- potential energy converted into heat energy. In our car this was friction of the wheels with the ground and the axles, as well as the friction of the rails on each other.
Total Energy- the total amount of kinetic, potential, and thermal energy in a moving object, the net energy acting on the object
Reflection- This project was beneficial to me in many ways. I learned a lot more about trial and error considering our idea was complicated to build. We had to experiment with many different strategies to make our plan work. We decided to have the back part of our car slam into the front and push the car with it. the rubber bands supplied the energy needed to propel our machine. I have a few peaks, one major improving one in leadership and one in cooperation. Leadership wise, I stood up for my ideas more and was definitely heard. For example, i had ideas regarding handles that ended up improving our overall car. Cooperation was another main component that i excelled in because I was able to understand what some one needed and supplied it. I was kind of a resource manager, if we needed a power drill, i would go get it. However, I need to improve on leadership even more because although i could manage resources, sometimes i would be more like a supplier, and didn't get to build as much. In this project I also got semi off task so i need to learn how to redirect conversations back to the project. Overall. i enjoyed the project and learned a lot from it.