Our Assingment
During this hybrid car project, my group and I were challenged to make a new and creative hybrid car for the Hyundai car company. In order to attempt to make the car company develop our car, were gave a presentation to our class as if they were Hyundai managers. Our classmates also graded our presentation as if they were Hyundai officials by leaving constructive criticism and feedback that we could use to develop our hybrid vehicle. We had to find new ways to propel a car as close to five meters as possible without using gasoline, electric, or nuclear power sources. Another challenge that we faced and had to consider during the construction of our vehicle was whether or not the vehicle would be able to carry 100 pennies weighing 250 grams for the entire 5 meter distance. We were also required to attempt to make the car affordable, with a clean energy power source, and with a reusable and reproducible power source.
Throughout our project, we had to graph and calculate the data and physics behind our working car.
The first graph shows the distance the car travled and the amout of time that the car took to travel a given distance. As you can see, the car accelerated sharply from about 1.4 seconds to 1.7 seconds then countinued to slow down as the car deccelerated.
The second graph displays the velocity of the car as it travles along the five meters. This graph follows the basic outline of the first graph because the velocity of the car is directly related to the distance and time of travel of the car.
The third graph shows the amount of energy in the car versus the time of the car's traveling. As the potential energy in the rubber bands decline, it dircetly turns into kinetic energy.
The second graph displays the velocity of the car as it travles along the five meters. This graph follows the basic outline of the first graph because the velocity of the car is directly related to the distance and time of travel of the car.
The third graph shows the amount of energy in the car versus the time of the car's traveling. As the potential energy in the rubber bands decline, it dircetly turns into kinetic energy.
Reflection
This project was very complicated throughout the entire project. From all members of the group not participating at certain points, to complex ideas that were not made to wrok since the beginning. Our original idea was to have a crank and gear system to wind up the car's rubber bands but that turned out to be much too complicated and didn't work out in the end. After trial and error with the design and consturction with all of the aspects of our car, were came up with a simple design where the car was powered by a chain of rubber bands wound around one of the axles of the car. By winding up the wheels, we were able to get the rubber bands to unwind to to their elasticity and propel the car foward. I learned to try to be more involved in projects and on our next project i hope to try to take charge in dividing the roles tha each member of the team has to complete in order for the project to be succesful.