Hybrid Car
Below is my hybrid car presentation:
Below is my hybrid car presentation:
In this project we had to make a car that didn't use any fossil fuels or battery power. The people in my group were Elise Chassman, Patrick Heslip, and Shannon Nguyen. We made a car that was powered by a rubber band and string so it is elastic energy. The string was wrapped around the axle and the rubber band was attached to the string. When the string was wound up around the axle. The rubber band got stretched so when it was released, it was propelled forward. We had about 3 weeks to work on this project.
Concepts:
Energy- capacity for doing work. The equation for energy is W=△PE=△KE.
Spring potential energy- energy due to compression or expansion of elastic material. The equation for this is PE=1/2kx^2. We used this equation to calculate the potential energy of the rubber band. Our spring potential energy depended on the spring constant of our rubber band. We found that it started at approximately 3.7 J and decreased relatively steadily from there.
Gravitational potential energy- energy due to gravity/being at a height. The equation is PE=mgh.
Kinetic Energy- energy due to movement. The equation is KE=mv^2. Our kinetic energy increased slightly before hitting it's maximum at about .5 J then it slowly decreased.
Spring Constant- a measure of the elasticity of a spring. The equations are F=kx and mg=kx. We used this to calculate the numbers shown on our graphs.
Friction- a force that affects motion. Friction on the ground helped our car move forward.
Pressure- the amount of force per unit of area. The equation is P=Force/Area.
Entropy- disorder, heat is lost to environment and can't be used; randomness.
Power- rate of doing work. The equation is P=w/t.
Thermal Energy- energy created by heat, usually because of friction. The equation is total energy minus kinetic energy minus potential energy. On our graph, the thermal energy starts low and rises while the other lines on the graph decrease.
Reflection:
My project went pretty well in general but everything has pits and peaks. Two pits of my pits were wasting time on ideas that weren't working and not having great time management. Two peaks of my project were learning more about how to make cars work and being able to work with a very open-minded and collaborative team.
The first pit of my project was wasting time on ideas that weren't working. In the beginning of making our project, we were working on an idea of using balloons to power our car. In wasn't working well at all but we kept trying for a couple days. Once we had finally given up on the idea, we had already wasted valuable time. The second pit of my project was not having great time management. We were done with our car very early so we had a lot of time to work on our presentation. This time was not used very well though; it would have been smarter if we had practiced and perfected our presentation more.
The first peak of my project was learning more about how cars work. I really got to see how much power it takes to move a car when we were trying different ideas for our car. The second peak of my project was being able to work with a very open-minded and collaborative team. Throughout the process of our project, my group worked very well together. We did a great job of being open minded to everyone's ideas and making sure that everyone in the group got a say in the final product of the project.
Concepts:
Energy- capacity for doing work. The equation for energy is W=△PE=△KE.
Spring potential energy- energy due to compression or expansion of elastic material. The equation for this is PE=1/2kx^2. We used this equation to calculate the potential energy of the rubber band. Our spring potential energy depended on the spring constant of our rubber band. We found that it started at approximately 3.7 J and decreased relatively steadily from there.
Gravitational potential energy- energy due to gravity/being at a height. The equation is PE=mgh.
Kinetic Energy- energy due to movement. The equation is KE=mv^2. Our kinetic energy increased slightly before hitting it's maximum at about .5 J then it slowly decreased.
Spring Constant- a measure of the elasticity of a spring. The equations are F=kx and mg=kx. We used this to calculate the numbers shown on our graphs.
Friction- a force that affects motion. Friction on the ground helped our car move forward.
Pressure- the amount of force per unit of area. The equation is P=Force/Area.
Entropy- disorder, heat is lost to environment and can't be used; randomness.
Power- rate of doing work. The equation is P=w/t.
Thermal Energy- energy created by heat, usually because of friction. The equation is total energy minus kinetic energy minus potential energy. On our graph, the thermal energy starts low and rises while the other lines on the graph decrease.
Reflection:
My project went pretty well in general but everything has pits and peaks. Two pits of my pits were wasting time on ideas that weren't working and not having great time management. Two peaks of my project were learning more about how to make cars work and being able to work with a very open-minded and collaborative team.
The first pit of my project was wasting time on ideas that weren't working. In the beginning of making our project, we were working on an idea of using balloons to power our car. In wasn't working well at all but we kept trying for a couple days. Once we had finally given up on the idea, we had already wasted valuable time. The second pit of my project was not having great time management. We were done with our car very early so we had a lot of time to work on our presentation. This time was not used very well though; it would have been smarter if we had practiced and perfected our presentation more.
The first peak of my project was learning more about how cars work. I really got to see how much power it takes to move a car when we were trying different ideas for our car. The second peak of my project was being able to work with a very open-minded and collaborative team. Throughout the process of our project, my group worked very well together. We did a great job of being open minded to everyone's ideas and making sure that everyone in the group got a say in the final product of the project.