Now that you believe my car works, let me explain it.
Also, There is a prezi presentation that goes along with our project so here is the link!
We were assigned to design and build a car that did not use gas or electricity, but another type of energy. The first thoughts that come into my mind for the substitute energy sources are: mousetrap, rubberband, or balloon. My group took these ideas into consideration but we decided we wanted to try something that we had never seen before. We chose to make our car Pulley powered.
Our car is a wood base with wheels made out of CD's. The back wheels made of CD's has grip tape around it so it would not slip on the floor. Attached to the base is a two meter piece of wood with a pulley on the top. At first we designed it very small but later figured out that it would be to flimsy, and not stable enough. Because we had to make the car so tall it did not stand up, it would tip over. Eventually, we built a bigger base and more stable wheels to be able to stabilize the enormously tall pulley. To make the car move you wind one end of the string on the pulley around the back wheels up. On the other side of the pulley attatched to the string is a weight that drops. As the weight is dropping it pulls the string forcing the back wheels to spin and the car move. The weight will then fall and hit the ground making the car stop. Depending on the amount of weight, you can make your car go faster and further.
Concepts:
FORCE: Strength or energy due to physical movement or action
MECHANICAL ADVANTAGE: The ratio of the force exerted by a machine to the force applied to it
ACCELERATION: An increase of the rate or speed of something
POTENTIAL ENERGY: The stored energy of an object due to its position
KINETIC ENERGY: The energy of motion in an object
ENERGY: Capacity of doing work
FRICTION: A force that effects an objects motion
REFLECTION
Overall I believe my group worked really well together to make a awesome car. We are all friends and I think that really showed in our final product. Something that we did well on this project is that our idea was unique. No one else in the STEM classes made a pulley powered car. Also, because we were all friendly with eachother we really listened to others people's ideas and tried to put them into the car if it was doable. It was good that we all communicated our thoughts about the car to each other but sometimes we digressed off topic. One thing that we could have done better is been more concentrated on finishing the car rather than taking our time talking about random things. Another thing we could have improved on is planning our time more wisely. At the beginning we were taking our time but by the end we were rushing to get it finished. We even had to go to Conrad's house to finish it one night. All in all, I think I learned a lot from this project to be able to think a little more out of the box.
Also, There is a prezi presentation that goes along with our project so here is the link!
We were assigned to design and build a car that did not use gas or electricity, but another type of energy. The first thoughts that come into my mind for the substitute energy sources are: mousetrap, rubberband, or balloon. My group took these ideas into consideration but we decided we wanted to try something that we had never seen before. We chose to make our car Pulley powered.
Our car is a wood base with wheels made out of CD's. The back wheels made of CD's has grip tape around it so it would not slip on the floor. Attached to the base is a two meter piece of wood with a pulley on the top. At first we designed it very small but later figured out that it would be to flimsy, and not stable enough. Because we had to make the car so tall it did not stand up, it would tip over. Eventually, we built a bigger base and more stable wheels to be able to stabilize the enormously tall pulley. To make the car move you wind one end of the string on the pulley around the back wheels up. On the other side of the pulley attatched to the string is a weight that drops. As the weight is dropping it pulls the string forcing the back wheels to spin and the car move. The weight will then fall and hit the ground making the car stop. Depending on the amount of weight, you can make your car go faster and further.
Concepts:
FORCE: Strength or energy due to physical movement or action
MECHANICAL ADVANTAGE: The ratio of the force exerted by a machine to the force applied to it
ACCELERATION: An increase of the rate or speed of something
POTENTIAL ENERGY: The stored energy of an object due to its position
KINETIC ENERGY: The energy of motion in an object
ENERGY: Capacity of doing work
FRICTION: A force that effects an objects motion
REFLECTION
Overall I believe my group worked really well together to make a awesome car. We are all friends and I think that really showed in our final product. Something that we did well on this project is that our idea was unique. No one else in the STEM classes made a pulley powered car. Also, because we were all friendly with eachother we really listened to others people's ideas and tried to put them into the car if it was doable. It was good that we all communicated our thoughts about the car to each other but sometimes we digressed off topic. One thing that we could have done better is been more concentrated on finishing the car rather than taking our time talking about random things. Another thing we could have improved on is planning our time more wisely. At the beginning we were taking our time but by the end we were rushing to get it finished. We even had to go to Conrad's house to finish it one night. All in all, I think I learned a lot from this project to be able to think a little more out of the box.