do it better project
Overview
Or like my group calls it, our "do it worse" project. For this project, we focused on the eighth component of the engineering design cycle, which was redesign. We were to get back into a group from a past project and "do it better" by starting that project from scratch and making modifications to our original design. I joined Elise, Sarah, and Shannon, who needed one more member to their group, and we decided to give the hybrid car project another go. We first attempted to recreate a mouse trap car that my previous hybrid car group made, but with no prevail. In our attempt to create enough tension, we broke the mousetrap and due to limited time, we were unable to buy another one in time. So we changed gears to what my group mates did before, which was using rubber bands. We strung multiple rubber bands together to get as much power as possible and even though it is not as consistent as a mouse trap, it was able to the job done and reach 5 meters.
Concepts
Energy: forms-work, potential energy, kinetic energy
Gravitational Potential Energy: PE=mgh, energy due to gravity, measured in joules
Kinetic Energy: KE=1/2mv2, energy due to movement, measured in Joules
Spring Potential Energy: energy due to compression or expansive material, measured in Joules.
Spring Constant: measurement of elasticity of a spring, measured in newtons per meter
Friction: force that affects motion, measured in Newtons
Entropy: disorder or randomness where heat is lost to the environment
Power: P=wt, rate of doing work
Velocity- V=d/t, rate of object, measured in meters per second
Gravitational Potential Energy: PE=mgh, energy due to gravity, measured in joules
Kinetic Energy: KE=1/2mv2, energy due to movement, measured in Joules
Spring Potential Energy: energy due to compression or expansive material, measured in Joules.
Spring Constant: measurement of elasticity of a spring, measured in newtons per meter
Friction: force that affects motion, measured in Newtons
Entropy: disorder or randomness where heat is lost to the environment
Power: P=wt, rate of doing work
Velocity- V=d/t, rate of object, measured in meters per second
Reflection
So the objective of this project was to do a project better and I can't say that this car was better than my last. The ideas were there, but the completion was not. Our two pits were the countless speed bumps that slowed us down for the past week and the final product. The wood kept splitting when we drilled into it, the wheels were too loose, the mousetrap broke, the rod in front of our car flipped the entire car over, and so much more. Once we fixed a problem, a new one arose. In the end, we were able to make a functional car that still could use some modifications. Our two peaks were our work ethic and our ideas of making a better car. Throughout the project, no matter what was thrown at us, we kept on preserving through and coming up with new ideas to substitute for the lesser one. Our wheels were not as wobbly which allowed our car to actually go in a straight line, our wheels run more smoothly than they did before, and we took into consideration the size of the car so there wouldn't need to be as much power to get to go a short distance. I am sad this is our last project in STEM with Mr. Williams, but I can't wait to start biology in the near future.