"Do It Better" Project
For our last project of the year we were required to take one of our previous project and try to improve on it. My group and I decided to take the Hybrid car project and improve on one of our cars. We chose my previous group's car to work on. Before starting the building process, we had to examine the old car and see what we wanted to improve on. We chose to focus on making the wheels and axel run smoother and being able to set the car up faster. We came up with a plan and drew put the details (blueprint drawing). We made the body of the car shorter and stacked more CD's together to make the wheels thicker. We also wrapped tire-like material around the CD wheels so they rolled easier and had less tension on the ground. Another thing we did was switch out the mouse trap and wire for rubber bands to start the car. The rubber bands used elastic energy to move the car and were much easier to set up than the mousetrap and fishing wire. After making all these changes and building our new and improved car, we had to test run it. Although the original model of the car went further and more constantly 5m, it was a really fun learning process to see what we could think of to do and see what ways we wanted to try and improve a model some of us had already created.
Content
For our last project of the year we were required to take one of our previous project and try to improve on it. My group and I decided to take the Hybrid car project and improve on one of our cars. We chose my previous group's car to work on. Before starting the building process, we had to examine the old car and see what we wanted to improve on. We chose to focus on making the wheels and axel run smoother and being able to set the car up faster. We came up with a plan and drew put the details (blueprint drawing). We made the body of the car shorter and stacked more CD's together to make the wheels thicker. We also wrapped tire-like material around the CD wheels so they rolled easier and had less tension on the ground. Another thing we did was switch out the mouse trap and wire for rubber bands to start the car. The rubber bands used elastic energy to move the car and were much easier to set up than the mousetrap and fishing wire. After making all these changes and building our new and improved car, we had to test run it. Although the original model of the car went further and more constantly 5m, it was a really fun learning process to see what we could think of to do and see what ways we wanted to try and improve a model some of us had already created.
Content
- Energy: capacity for doing work- many different forms W=Fd, W= total PE= total KE. measured in Joules (J). Our car had a total energy of 4.314 J
- Gravitational Potential Energy: energy due to gravity- PE= mgh. measured in Joules (J)
- Kinetic Energy: energy due to movement- KE= 1/2mv^2. measured in Joules (J). Our car had about0.0574 J at 1 meter.
- Spring Constant: measure of elasticity of a spring- F= kx, mg= kx. measured in Newtons/ meter (N/m). Our car had a spring constant of 10.42 N/m
- Spring Potential Energy: energy due to compression or expansion of an elastic material- PE= 1/2kx^2. measured in Joules (J)
- Friction: force that affects or resists motion- measured in Newtons. Our car had a lot of friction on the wheels so we changed the wheels to CDs, which were bigger and skinnier and reduced some of the friction.
- Pressure: amount of force on a certain area- P= Force/Area. measured in Newtons/meters^2 (pascal) and (psi=pounds/inches^2). The 250 grams of weight we put on the car put a certain amount of pressure wherever they were placed on our car.
- Entropy: disorder, heat is lost to environment and can't be used; randomness.
- Power: rate of doing work- P= weight/ time (P=w/t). measured in Watts (W). Our car had a certain amount of power when it travelled 5 meter.
- Velocity: rate of change of an object (speed)- V= distance/time (V=d/t). measured in meters/ second (m/s). Our car had a velocity of 0.827 m/s at 4 meters.
Reflection
As the last project of the year there were many peaks and pits we had. I feel that a peak we definitely had for this project was past knowledge. Since we had already done the same project before, we new what was required and how to make it run smooth. I think this helped with the overall end product and took some stress and pressure away. Another peak I feel we had was work ethic. Throughout this project we knew what we had to get done in order for it to be complete. Just like the past knowledge we have, it was a lot easier to work through this project because we knew what kind of building and contraction had to be done and in what way. Along with the great peaks we had, there was also some pits as there is in every project. One of the pits we had was brainstorming at first. We wanted to have a product different from our last hybrid car, but also similar. It was a struggle to come up with ideas at first because we didn't know exactly where to start, but we worked through it and once it got rolling, we were able to focus on specific parts and come up with ideas. Another pit we had was staying on task 24/7. Because it was such a fun project to do with my group, it was hard to focus on building all the time because we had already done it so there was not a lot of "new" things to discover. Although this created a minor set back, we were able to come up with tiny details we could tweak and/or add. In the end, I think the car came out great and we had some really good ideas backing it up, but for some reason it didn't travel the full 5m distance. Once we ran it we were able to fix some problems and make it go a little further but it still did't quite travel the whole distance. Even though we had to "do it better", in a way I think we did because we were still able to make a new car, come up with new ideas, and put it all together in not a lot of time. The overall knowledge we gained is a huge takeaway and I think that is what really matters. Therefore our final project of STEM 2015 Freshman year was a success!
As the last project of the year there were many peaks and pits we had. I feel that a peak we definitely had for this project was past knowledge. Since we had already done the same project before, we new what was required and how to make it run smooth. I think this helped with the overall end product and took some stress and pressure away. Another peak I feel we had was work ethic. Throughout this project we knew what we had to get done in order for it to be complete. Just like the past knowledge we have, it was a lot easier to work through this project because we knew what kind of building and contraction had to be done and in what way. Along with the great peaks we had, there was also some pits as there is in every project. One of the pits we had was brainstorming at first. We wanted to have a product different from our last hybrid car, but also similar. It was a struggle to come up with ideas at first because we didn't know exactly where to start, but we worked through it and once it got rolling, we were able to focus on specific parts and come up with ideas. Another pit we had was staying on task 24/7. Because it was such a fun project to do with my group, it was hard to focus on building all the time because we had already done it so there was not a lot of "new" things to discover. Although this created a minor set back, we were able to come up with tiny details we could tweak and/or add. In the end, I think the car came out great and we had some really good ideas backing it up, but for some reason it didn't travel the full 5m distance. Once we ran it we were able to fix some problems and make it go a little further but it still did't quite travel the whole distance. Even though we had to "do it better", in a way I think we did because we were still able to make a new car, come up with new ideas, and put it all together in not a lot of time. The overall knowledge we gained is a huge takeaway and I think that is what really matters. Therefore our final project of STEM 2015 Freshman year was a success!