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What We Did
The focus of this project was to design and build an alternate energy car that used no electricity or gasoline. My group, Michelle, Jake, Casey, and I, decided to construct a vehicle that was powered using rubber bands. The other component of the assignment was that our car had to be able to travel 5 meters and stop on its own. We had a total of 7 days to design, build, and test our car. My group spent the first 3 days planning and building our vehicle. We then spent the remaining 4 days testing our car and putting together our presentation. For more detailed information about our vehicle's final product, look through the slideshow on the left |
Physics Concepts We Used
Velocity- the rate of distance covered in a direction. To find velocity we used the equation Velocity=Distance/Time
Acceleration- rate of change of velocity (speeding up or slowing down). The formula for acceleration is Acceleration=Velocity/Time
Spring Potential Energy- energy stored by the compression or expansion of a spring. To find this we used PE=1/2 times Spring Constant times X squared. X represents the distance moved by the spring.
Kinetic Energy- energy due to motion. The equation for Kinetic Energy is KE=1/2 x mass x velocity squared
Spring Constant- a measure of how easily a spring is compresses and expanded. To find this we used Spring Constant=Force/Distance
Thermal Energy- potential energy converted into heat energy
Total Energy- the total amount of kinetic, potential, and thermal energy in a moving object
Power- amount of energy used per unit of time
Reflection
Overall, i think this project was one of the most successful ones I've done all year. Everyone in my group contributed equal amounts and all shared ideas that were taken into consideration. No one's ideas were shut down or tossed aside. From the very start of the project, my group and I got right to work and developed a very clear idea of what we wanted our vehicle to look like and do. This really helped towards the end of the project and during the testing phase because we already ahead of schedule, so the stress factor was reduced. However, as all groups do, we had our ups and downs. As I already touched on before, our time management skills were great. Due to our fast design and construction, we began the testing phase much before other groups and had more time to tweak and perfect our vehicle without stressing out over time. However our group did struggle with trial and error. Due to our car's power source of rubber bands, we had to be very specific on how many times we wound up the rubber bands, (how much power we gave our vehicle.) The process of testing this aspect of our vehicle was very tedious and frustrating, but once we figured it out our car worked very consistently. Individually, I could also work on taking more action in the building portions of projects. Usually I would assist with tasks but never really would take charge and initiate them during building. If i started to improve on that, I would probably learn a lot more about construction. However, despite the harder parts of our project, My group and I worked very together and were all very respectful of each other. We also were all very strong presenters which helped reduce the stress of presenting our project's final product to the class.
Velocity- the rate of distance covered in a direction. To find velocity we used the equation Velocity=Distance/Time
Acceleration- rate of change of velocity (speeding up or slowing down). The formula for acceleration is Acceleration=Velocity/Time
Spring Potential Energy- energy stored by the compression or expansion of a spring. To find this we used PE=1/2 times Spring Constant times X squared. X represents the distance moved by the spring.
Kinetic Energy- energy due to motion. The equation for Kinetic Energy is KE=1/2 x mass x velocity squared
Spring Constant- a measure of how easily a spring is compresses and expanded. To find this we used Spring Constant=Force/Distance
Thermal Energy- potential energy converted into heat energy
Total Energy- the total amount of kinetic, potential, and thermal energy in a moving object
Power- amount of energy used per unit of time
Reflection
Overall, i think this project was one of the most successful ones I've done all year. Everyone in my group contributed equal amounts and all shared ideas that were taken into consideration. No one's ideas were shut down or tossed aside. From the very start of the project, my group and I got right to work and developed a very clear idea of what we wanted our vehicle to look like and do. This really helped towards the end of the project and during the testing phase because we already ahead of schedule, so the stress factor was reduced. However, as all groups do, we had our ups and downs. As I already touched on before, our time management skills were great. Due to our fast design and construction, we began the testing phase much before other groups and had more time to tweak and perfect our vehicle without stressing out over time. However our group did struggle with trial and error. Due to our car's power source of rubber bands, we had to be very specific on how many times we wound up the rubber bands, (how much power we gave our vehicle.) The process of testing this aspect of our vehicle was very tedious and frustrating, but once we figured it out our car worked very consistently. Individually, I could also work on taking more action in the building portions of projects. Usually I would assist with tasks but never really would take charge and initiate them during building. If i started to improve on that, I would probably learn a lot more about construction. However, despite the harder parts of our project, My group and I worked very together and were all very respectful of each other. We also were all very strong presenters which helped reduce the stress of presenting our project's final product to the class.
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