Evidence
This is our alternative energy car. We spent about a month working on it. We spent time planning, building, refining, and taking calculations. The document above shows the presentation of our vehicle.
Content
Terms Velocity- rate of covered distance in a direction Equation- v=d/t Unit- meters per second (m/s) Spring Constant- stiffness in a spring Equation- Force exerted on spring/displacement of spring Unit- Newton meters (N/m) Spring Potential Energy- energy stored by stretching or compressing an elastic object Equation- 1/2Kx^2 Unit- Joules (J) Gravitational Potential Energy- energy an object has due to its position at a height Equation- PEg=mgh Unit- Joules (J) Kinetic Energy- energy due to motion Equation- 1/2mv^2 Unit- Joules (J) Thermal Energy- energy converted into heat Equation- TE= total energy- PE- KE Unit- Joules (J) Power- rate at which work is done Equation- P=W/t Unit- Watts (W) Friction- force opposing the direction of motion due to roughness at molecular level |
Physics
Our car is run on potential energy. The gravitational potential energy of the car at the start is 6.19 Joules. Our kinetic energy ended up being 0.64 Joules which means that 5.55 Joules of energy was converted into thermal energy. We calculated that 10% of the total energy was converted into kinetic energy and 90% of the total energy was converted into thermal energy. The average velocity of our car was 0.97 m/s. We also calculated that the power of our car is 4 watts. On our energy vs time graph, you'll see that our potential energy is in the negative part of the graph. That is due to the car running down the ramp. When the car is at the top, it has the most potential energy and loses potential energy until the car has rolled down the bottom of the ramp. Also, the top of the potential energy is where the total energy starts. The total energy is constant because energy is neither created or destroyed. You'll also notice that the kinetic energy is present in the negative part of the graph as well. That is due to the car accelerating down the ramp even though there is potential energy present. |
Final Thoughts
Overall, this project was very difficult but I still had a lot of fun. We had many obstacles but we persevered and accomplished our goal. Although we persevered, we did have our troubles. One thing that we didn't do very good with was time management. Although we got our project finished in time, we were in a huge scramble right before the project was due. We spent most of our time either messing around or working on something for a unnecessary amount of time. If we can improve on this, we could have more time to work on the quality of our work. Another thing that we could've done better was work load and communication. Most of were unclear on what we wanted to do and it took some time to decide what we wanted to build. We also had trouble with distributing work evenly. I could definitely say that most of the work was put on one or two people. If involve everyone in the group , we would've had greater quality of work or more ideas contributed.
Even though we had trouble with somethings, we had many strong points. One of these strong points was adaptation. Our first plan for our vehicle was the rat trap vehicle. However, our car did not work like it did so we made multiple modification to make our car functional. I think that we adapted very well and was able to make our vehicle as functional as possible. Another thing that we did well was multi tasking. Due to our poor time management, we were forced into a scramble. However we did our best to stay organized and resorted to multi tasking. Two of us work on the slide show presentation while the other two worked on making the car functional. Overall, this project was very difficult but it was still very fun. I would like to do this project again and wish we could've learned from our mistakes earlier.
Even though we had trouble with somethings, we had many strong points. One of these strong points was adaptation. Our first plan for our vehicle was the rat trap vehicle. However, our car did not work like it did so we made multiple modification to make our car functional. I think that we adapted very well and was able to make our vehicle as functional as possible. Another thing that we did well was multi tasking. Due to our poor time management, we were forced into a scramble. However we did our best to stay organized and resorted to multi tasking. Two of us work on the slide show presentation while the other two worked on making the car functional. Overall, this project was very difficult but it was still very fun. I would like to do this project again and wish we could've learned from our mistakes earlier.