Hey there! It's Hayden, back again with another project. This time around, my group and I made an Alternative Energy Vehicle. (That's just a fancy name for a car that is not powered by gas or electricity.)
During this project, my group and I were tasked with thinking up an alternative energy source. We were then supposed to put that source into effect on a car. This car was supposed to go 5 meters and it had be able to carry 250 grams. We thought about multiple energy sources such as steam, wind, a mouse trap (spring), and rubber bands (also spring). We started with a mouse trap because the most amount of people seemed to have used it. It didnt work out to well for a few reasons including weight, functionality, and efficiency, so we switched to rubber bands. This worked much better. The rubber bands were easier to set up, they were far more efficient in starting the car's motion, they weighed less, they made the car go farther, etc. The rubber bands evetually wore out making the car go only 3.5 meters when we tested it last
Potential Energy (PE): Potential energy is the energy an object has in realation to its height in a gravitational field, inner and outer stresses or pressures, and other things that are acting on the object. We used this to calculate how much energy the rubber band car had before we released
Kinetic Energy (KE): This can be defined as energy due to motion. This is also measured in Joules. This was used to calculate how much potential energy was converted into actual motion.
Thermal Energy: This is the energy that was left over (not converted to kinetic), and instead converted to things like sound and friction. This was also measured in Joules. We used this as a way to show where the Potential Energy that was not converted into Kinetic Energy had gone.
Spring Constant (k): This can be defined as how difficult it is to stretch a spring. The higher the spring constantis, the more effort it takes to stretch the spring or rubber bands. This was used to measure the difficulty of stretching rubber bands. The unit of measurement is N/m.
Over all, this project was quite enjoyable. I learned about other ways that could possibly power cars. Some things I did well: I was very focused during this project, which was why we finished our car early. I was also very positive during this project, which could be demonstrated by how I asked my partners their opinions on improvements, and then collaborated with them and the rest of the group to put their ideas into action. I could have tried to improve the car more with the extra time we had insted of spending it on unnecessary things, like creating a better theme, or thinking about the different ways we could make the car go when we already have a concrete idea. I also could have delegated tasks more and been a stronger leader rather than waiting and asking and being told what to do.
Thanks for reading about my Alternative Energy Car!
During this project, my group and I were tasked with thinking up an alternative energy source. We were then supposed to put that source into effect on a car. This car was supposed to go 5 meters and it had be able to carry 250 grams. We thought about multiple energy sources such as steam, wind, a mouse trap (spring), and rubber bands (also spring). We started with a mouse trap because the most amount of people seemed to have used it. It didnt work out to well for a few reasons including weight, functionality, and efficiency, so we switched to rubber bands. This worked much better. The rubber bands were easier to set up, they were far more efficient in starting the car's motion, they weighed less, they made the car go farther, etc. The rubber bands evetually wore out making the car go only 3.5 meters when we tested it last
Potential Energy (PE): Potential energy is the energy an object has in realation to its height in a gravitational field, inner and outer stresses or pressures, and other things that are acting on the object. We used this to calculate how much energy the rubber band car had before we released
Kinetic Energy (KE): This can be defined as energy due to motion. This is also measured in Joules. This was used to calculate how much potential energy was converted into actual motion.
Thermal Energy: This is the energy that was left over (not converted to kinetic), and instead converted to things like sound and friction. This was also measured in Joules. We used this as a way to show where the Potential Energy that was not converted into Kinetic Energy had gone.
Spring Constant (k): This can be defined as how difficult it is to stretch a spring. The higher the spring constantis, the more effort it takes to stretch the spring or rubber bands. This was used to measure the difficulty of stretching rubber bands. The unit of measurement is N/m.
Over all, this project was quite enjoyable. I learned about other ways that could possibly power cars. Some things I did well: I was very focused during this project, which was why we finished our car early. I was also very positive during this project, which could be demonstrated by how I asked my partners their opinions on improvements, and then collaborated with them and the rest of the group to put their ideas into action. I could have tried to improve the car more with the extra time we had insted of spending it on unnecessary things, like creating a better theme, or thinking about the different ways we could make the car go when we already have a concrete idea. I also could have delegated tasks more and been a stronger leader rather than waiting and asking and being told what to do.
Thanks for reading about my Alternative Energy Car!