The DREAM MACHINE
Our hybrid car had a really hard time getting off of the ground. We started creating a bunch of different ideas, and none of them were working. Each time, something different would go wrong. First, it was the wheels. We tried to be creative, and not use CD's for our wheels, because pretty much everybody else was doing that. So, what we decided to do was use protractors. We took two protractors, taped them together, and it made somewhat of a circular shape. Since we couldn't tape them together precisely, they were really wobbly. After that, the axels for our wheels were the problem. We used straws, because they didn't generate a lot of friction. Our car was too heavy for the straws, and they would just give out, because they couldn't support the weight. Next, it was our source of energy. We wanted to use a mouse trap, because mouse traps are really powerful. Our mouse traps were too small, and didn't generate enough force. After all of these problems, we ended up using rollerblade wheels for our wheels, we used copper pipes for our axels, and we used rubber bands as our energy source.
Our car is about a meter long, and about 6 cm wide. It's color is brown, and it's wheels are orange. Because our car's wheels are so small, the car is very low to the ground giving it a low center of gravity. This leads to a more stable ride. Our car only travels about 4 meters, at an average velocity just under 1 meter per second. One unique characteristic of our car, is that it can hold an incredible amount of weight without breaking, or doing any other damage to the car. To demonstrate it, we had one of our group members, Brian, stand on the car. Brian weighs a little over 100 pounds. The fact that a car as long and narrow as ours can hold that kind of weight, is pretty impressive in my opinion. The reason our car is so long, is because we needed the rubber bands to get a good distance. Our car weighs about 4 pounds, and the rubber bands just weren't giving us the distance that we needed. The reason we extended the front, was to give the rubber bands more time to unwind, thus giving the wheels more revolutions.
There wasn't much reasoning behind the name of our car. We kind of just wanted to name it something not boring. If we had a boring name, nobody would remember it. When naming something, you always want to have a memorable name, so that people remember what your car could do.
In this unit, we learned about 3 different types of energy; potential energy, kinetic energy, and thermal energy. Energy is measured in joules (J). In our case, we used elastic potential energy. Elastic potential energy is energy due to compression or expansion of elastic material. Our elastic material was rubber bands. The equation for potential energy is PE=1/2kx^2. Kinetic energy is energy due to movement or motion. In other words, it the measurement of energy while the car is moving. The equation for kinetic energy, is KE=1/2mv^2. Thermal energy is pretty self explanatory. It's the energy consisting of or generated by heat. Our graph shows that the potential energy steadily decreases, thermal energy steadily increases, and kinetic energy stays around the same the entire time that the car is in motion. Another concept we used was friction. Friction is force in opposition to motion. The unit for friction is newtons (N).
Had we not learned about these concepts, our project would have been a lot harder to pull off. One instance where we used friction was when we were putting on our axels. If we hadn't learned about friction, we probably would have made our axels go through a solid block of wood, rather than two skinny ones. This would have generated more friction, making the wheels much harder to turn, leading to the car not traveling as far. Another thing we wouldn't have know to do is extend the length of our car. By extending it, we gave the car more potential energy, so that it went farther. If we hadn't know about this, we wouldn't have figured out to extend the car, and it would be going half as far as it does now.
Our group had a pretty tough time getting through this project. We did not work particularly well together, and we argued about a lot of stuff. This wasted a lot of time. Some members weren't participating, and some were participating, but in an unhelpful manner. We barely got our car finished. We focused too much on trying to get it to go exactly 5 meters, but it just wouldn't. We barely finished our presentation, because we wasted too much time working on the car. So all in all, our group did not work together or perform very well at all. The fact that we didn't communicate well, affected our overall project in a bad way, and we can't let that happen again.
I have a lot to take away from this project. They say that the best way to learn is by making mistakes, and we sure did make a lot. Before this project, I didn't really like telling people that they were doing things wrong. Now I know how to it in a constructive way, so that it doesn't hurt our group. Also, I have learned that time management can make a world of difference. If you don't manage your time well, like our group, there is no question that you will fall behind. Falling behind is the worst thing to do, because your work will eventually start piling up, you will get stressed, you won't know what to do with yourself, and your end result is going to turn out much more sloppy. It's better to have the time to think about what you are doing, and to think about how to do it thoroughly.
There are multiple things that I could have done better. One thing is, I could have helped a little bit more with working on the car. We had been working on the car and failing multiple times, and we just weren't getting anywhere. I was losing patience and just getting tired, so I stepped out, which is really bad to do, because it puts more work on your group mates, and that's just being selfish. Another thing I could have done is make a schedule for our group. We did terribly time management wise, and I think that it would have really helped if we made set goals for ourselves. I should have stepped up and done that, because it would have been a HUGE help in the process. So, even though our project could have been a bit better, it ended up being a pretty good project. We just needed to communicate better, and that is going to be my #1 priority going forward when working with other people.
Here is the link to our slideshow presentation:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1WbU_cLZqzUEk_zoyXn_NMc3F1UrIIscg0MdibYmw7cw/edit#slide=id.p
Our car is about a meter long, and about 6 cm wide. It's color is brown, and it's wheels are orange. Because our car's wheels are so small, the car is very low to the ground giving it a low center of gravity. This leads to a more stable ride. Our car only travels about 4 meters, at an average velocity just under 1 meter per second. One unique characteristic of our car, is that it can hold an incredible amount of weight without breaking, or doing any other damage to the car. To demonstrate it, we had one of our group members, Brian, stand on the car. Brian weighs a little over 100 pounds. The fact that a car as long and narrow as ours can hold that kind of weight, is pretty impressive in my opinion. The reason our car is so long, is because we needed the rubber bands to get a good distance. Our car weighs about 4 pounds, and the rubber bands just weren't giving us the distance that we needed. The reason we extended the front, was to give the rubber bands more time to unwind, thus giving the wheels more revolutions.
There wasn't much reasoning behind the name of our car. We kind of just wanted to name it something not boring. If we had a boring name, nobody would remember it. When naming something, you always want to have a memorable name, so that people remember what your car could do.
In this unit, we learned about 3 different types of energy; potential energy, kinetic energy, and thermal energy. Energy is measured in joules (J). In our case, we used elastic potential energy. Elastic potential energy is energy due to compression or expansion of elastic material. Our elastic material was rubber bands. The equation for potential energy is PE=1/2kx^2. Kinetic energy is energy due to movement or motion. In other words, it the measurement of energy while the car is moving. The equation for kinetic energy, is KE=1/2mv^2. Thermal energy is pretty self explanatory. It's the energy consisting of or generated by heat. Our graph shows that the potential energy steadily decreases, thermal energy steadily increases, and kinetic energy stays around the same the entire time that the car is in motion. Another concept we used was friction. Friction is force in opposition to motion. The unit for friction is newtons (N).
Had we not learned about these concepts, our project would have been a lot harder to pull off. One instance where we used friction was when we were putting on our axels. If we hadn't learned about friction, we probably would have made our axels go through a solid block of wood, rather than two skinny ones. This would have generated more friction, making the wheels much harder to turn, leading to the car not traveling as far. Another thing we wouldn't have know to do is extend the length of our car. By extending it, we gave the car more potential energy, so that it went farther. If we hadn't know about this, we wouldn't have figured out to extend the car, and it would be going half as far as it does now.
Our group had a pretty tough time getting through this project. We did not work particularly well together, and we argued about a lot of stuff. This wasted a lot of time. Some members weren't participating, and some were participating, but in an unhelpful manner. We barely got our car finished. We focused too much on trying to get it to go exactly 5 meters, but it just wouldn't. We barely finished our presentation, because we wasted too much time working on the car. So all in all, our group did not work together or perform very well at all. The fact that we didn't communicate well, affected our overall project in a bad way, and we can't let that happen again.
I have a lot to take away from this project. They say that the best way to learn is by making mistakes, and we sure did make a lot. Before this project, I didn't really like telling people that they were doing things wrong. Now I know how to it in a constructive way, so that it doesn't hurt our group. Also, I have learned that time management can make a world of difference. If you don't manage your time well, like our group, there is no question that you will fall behind. Falling behind is the worst thing to do, because your work will eventually start piling up, you will get stressed, you won't know what to do with yourself, and your end result is going to turn out much more sloppy. It's better to have the time to think about what you are doing, and to think about how to do it thoroughly.
There are multiple things that I could have done better. One thing is, I could have helped a little bit more with working on the car. We had been working on the car and failing multiple times, and we just weren't getting anywhere. I was losing patience and just getting tired, so I stepped out, which is really bad to do, because it puts more work on your group mates, and that's just being selfish. Another thing I could have done is make a schedule for our group. We did terribly time management wise, and I think that it would have really helped if we made set goals for ourselves. I should have stepped up and done that, because it would have been a HUGE help in the process. So, even though our project could have been a bit better, it ended up being a pretty good project. We just needed to communicate better, and that is going to be my #1 priority going forward when working with other people.
Here is the link to our slideshow presentation:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1WbU_cLZqzUEk_zoyXn_NMc3F1UrIIscg0MdibYmw7cw/edit#slide=id.p