The Project
For this project we had to build a hybrid car for Hyundai with a physical energy storage system. Any type of potential energy is allowed accept for chemical and nuclear. The stored energy has to convert into forward motion and move the car 5 meters with 100 pennies or 250 grams on the car. For our project we used spring potential energy of rubber bands to power our car. We put the bands on the car then pulled the bands back around the axle to move the wheels. Our car didn't make the 5 meter mark but it was fun to make.
Physics Concepts
- Acceleration (a=change in v/change in time) is the rate of change foe velocity. Our car accelerated from 0 m/s to 1 m/s in 3 seconds
- Friction is the force opposing direction of motion due to roughness at the molecular level. We added friction to the wheels to increase traction.
- Velocity (v=d/t) is rate of covered distance in a directions. The velocity of my groups car was 1 m/s for 2 seconds.
- Spring constant (F=kd or k=F exerted on it/displacement of spring) is the stiffness of a spring. The tendency of a spring to go back to its original form. The spring constant of the two rubber bands we used were 122.5 N/m.
- Spring Potential Energy (PE Spring=1/2kx^2) is energy stored by stretching or compressing an elastic object. We used the PE of a stretch rubber band to move our car.
- Kinetic Energy (KE=1/2mv^2) is energy due to energy. The PE from the stretched rubber bands converted in KE which powered our car
- Thermal Energy (TE=Total E-PE-KE) is energy converted to energy. A lot of the PE in our car quickly changed to TE.
- Total Energy (Total E=PE+KE+TE) is all of the energy in the system you're observing. The total energy of our car is 1.4 joules.
- Distance vs Time, we found the that our car travels 4 meters in 5 seconds. We did this we could find the speed of our car.
Reflections
The beginning of our project was rough. My group had a hard time deciding what type of energy we want to power our car and what the cars design will be. Despite our bad start on the project we final came up with an idea, stuck with it and completed the project. During some parts of the project I took the roll of leader. I divide up the work for the project and made sure we were on task and get something done. I also made meetings between team member to complete parts of the project and I spent extra time to work on the project. Even though, I did fine as a team mate there were somethings i could have done better. During the project i was stubborn and sometimes would not accept new ideas and argue mine was better. Besides that I would sometimes work by myself and not accept help. When I was working the calculations I would not accept help and worked by myself. This project was fun even though we had a slow start and some disagreements.