Alternative Energy Vehicle
For this project, our group had to create an alternative energy vehicle as a new model for Hyundai. The vehicle couldn't use chemical or nuclear as its energy source. My group included Tara, Mckenzie, Ryan and I. We chose to have our car use rubber bands as an energy source, like many other groups. But our car ran much differently than the other rubber band powered vehicles. We used more of a slam affect rather than the normal rubber band unwinding method. This will be explained more later.
Materials
- Two large boards
- four wheels
- two smaller boards for handles
- six rubber bands
- nails and screws
- cabinet rail
- four small wooden pegs
- small bag for holding masses
Concepts
Potential Energy the energy in an object due to its position relative to others, energy stored within itself, or height
Potential energy of a spring this is the energy stored due to the deformation of an object. For our car it was a rubber band being stretched between two pegs
Kinetic Energy energy due to motion. The equation for Kinetic Energy is KE=1/2 x mass x velocity squared. This was the force making the car move.
Spring Constant- a measure of how easily a spring is compresses and expanded, or in our case the strength of the rubber band. To find this we used Spring Constant=Force/Distance
Thermal Energy- potential energy converted into heat energy. In our car this was friction of the wheels with the ground and the axles, as well as the friction of the rails on each other.
Total Energy- the total amount of kinetic, potential, and thermal energy in a moving object, the net energy acting on the object
Potential energy of a spring this is the energy stored due to the deformation of an object. For our car it was a rubber band being stretched between two pegs
Kinetic Energy energy due to motion. The equation for Kinetic Energy is KE=1/2 x mass x velocity squared. This was the force making the car move.
Spring Constant- a measure of how easily a spring is compresses and expanded, or in our case the strength of the rubber band. To find this we used Spring Constant=Force/Distance
Thermal Energy- potential energy converted into heat energy. In our car this was friction of the wheels with the ground and the axles, as well as the friction of the rails on each other.
Total Energy- the total amount of kinetic, potential, and thermal energy in a moving object, the net energy acting on the object
Reflection
On this project, my group worked very well together. All of us were working almost all of the time. Although, we sometimes didn't work on the right thing, we got it done. Our time could have been spent better if we had agreed on an idea that we all though would work. We used rubber bands to pull the top of our car back, and then let go to release it send the top shooting forward. The top ghen slams into the front of the car and sends it five meters... some of the time. Some of us didn't believe this idea would work because there was little room for error and many ways we could be off. Mr.Williams was unsure the idea would work at first but we proved that it did. We pursued this idea and made it work. Eventually our car was done and it worked nicely. We worked together and listened to each others ideas and got it done. We learned from past mistakes and got this project done much more efficient than we had in prior groups.
Presentation
hybrid_car.pptx | |
File Size: | 423 kb |
File Type: | pptx |