For the last project of the year, we chose a project we have done in the past and tried to make it better in some way. My group chose to remake the hybrid energy car which worked out great. The car has to be an alternate source of energy and can not be chemical or nuclear energy. Our car has two rubber bands so that is our energy source.
Concepts
Potential Energy (spring): How much energy a spring, or rubber band, is storing. Measures in Joules (J). We used this to calculate how much energy the rubber band car had before we released.
Kinetic Energy: Energy due to motion. Measured in Joules (J). We used this to see how much of our potential energy was converted to movement force.
Thermal Energy: The energy not converted to kinetic, and instead converted to things like sound and friction. Measured in Joules (J). We used this to see how ineffective our cars could be.
Spring Constant: How difficult it is to move a spring. the higher the spring constant, the harder it is to move. We used this to help us find out how difficult, or easy, it was to stretch our rubber bands.
Kinetic Energy: Energy due to motion. Measured in Joules (J). We used this to see how much of our potential energy was converted to movement force.
Thermal Energy: The energy not converted to kinetic, and instead converted to things like sound and friction. Measured in Joules (J). We used this to see how ineffective our cars could be.
Spring Constant: How difficult it is to move a spring. the higher the spring constant, the harder it is to move. We used this to help us find out how difficult, or easy, it was to stretch our rubber bands.
Reflection
I thought that for sure we did this project better than before. It was a much more comfortable and less stressful experience because we knew what we were doing and what worked and what didn't work. Our car ended up being able to smash through a wall of jingo blocs and go five meters a good percentage of the times we tried it. Some things that went well was our work ethic and productivity. We were very productive every minute of this project and it turned out great because my group and I were focused on the task at hand and didn't fool around too much. Everything went well during this project. It was a great way to finish off the year. Something that also went well was that our car had two rubber bands which means double the amount of potential energy the car has and the distance is doubled. This is because on the old car, we had one rubber band which we relied on to make the car go five meters with weights, and this time around we had two rubber bands. Some things I learned was that even though we didn't have nearly as much time as the other one to make the best car possible, we still made a great car and I realized it isn't the time you put into something although that is a huge part, it is the effort and focus you put into it that really counts. I really tried to learn as much as I could about the physics behind this this time around. A peak of this project is when our car crashed into the wall and went five meters perfectly. A pit, which is not really a pit more of something we learned we could not do but am glad we tried it, is that we tried to make it go off a jump and go five meters. When we figured out that couldn't work because the car didn't have enough speed to go over it and have some momentum, we easily came up with a more efficient idea that helped us out more on the long run. This Do It Better project helped me appreciate the significance behind everything we learned this year and how we can incorporate it into our everyday lives.