Our task was to create an energy efficient car that traveled exactly five meters. The car also had to be designed to hold 100 pennies or 250 grams. We were given seven days to design and build our car. We decided to make a car powered by a single rat trap. The farthest our car ever went was 4.5 meters.
This graph shows the our car’s change in velocity. When the string is being pulled it causes a rapid incline in speed. Before the string is finished being pulled it looses a very small amount of speed until the lever snaps the last bit of string to carry it a total of 4.5 meters.
This graph show the potential energy of our car. It first had a lot because the string was all wound up, but once it was released the potential energy was then transferred into either kinetic energy or thermal energy.
This was the amount of energy that was released and moved our car. It first does not have any energy because we did not released the car yet, but when we did release it, it mirrors the velocity because it shows the different amounts of energy at a given time.
This was the amount energy lost through heat (friction). Eventually all energy would have been lost and would have been converted to thermal energy. The curve of the line shows that most of the potential was transferred into thermal energy quickly suggesting that our car was not as efficient as it could have.
Here is what they all look like on one graph.
New Concepts:
- Thermal Energy is the difference between potential energy and kinetic energy. This is because not all energy is transferred. Most of the energy is lost due to friction. We used this concept to see how efficient our car was.
- Potential Energy is how much possible energy is stored in an object. We used this concept to see the approximate distance the car could go.
- Kinetic Energy is how much energy the car actualy releases.
- Velocity is the speed of a moving object in a certain direction. We used this equation to help to solve for the acceleration of the car.
Reflection:
In this project I did well by sharing useful ideas that were valid for the project to help us advance the car’s functions. I also made sure that my group members were on task and were not doing what they were not supposed to be doing. This was very useful to my group because we were able to get the car done in an efficient amount of time.
In future projects I need to work on making sure everyone is doing a job that is useful to our project along with having more empathy to other group members. By improving this it will help my future groups create a successful project because everyone would have done an equal share for the project and by understanding my other group members feelings it will allow me to work better with them.
In this project I did well by sharing useful ideas that were valid for the project to help us advance the car’s functions. I also made sure that my group members were on task and were not doing what they were not supposed to be doing. This was very useful to my group because we were able to get the car done in an efficient amount of time.
In future projects I need to work on making sure everyone is doing a job that is useful to our project along with having more empathy to other group members. By improving this it will help my future groups create a successful project because everyone would have done an equal share for the project and by understanding my other group members feelings it will allow me to work better with them.