The Unicar
What we did.
In this project, we were given a demand for a hybrid car that could run on renewable energy and work reliably while going exactly five meters. Our group chose the idea of using elastic energy. We built a solid frame and attached four wheels on the axles. A nail was attached to the back rotating axle, which we wrapped one end of the looped rubber band chain to. The more we wrapped the rubber band around the axle, the farther the car would go. This elasticity moved the wheels and is a practical source of energy that could potentially be incorporated into cars today.
The Bumps in the Road.
Our group had a few difficulties deciding on what we were going to do. It took us about a day to finally lock down our idea, after contemplating a gear-driven car, and a magnetic car. We eventually thought that the rubber band idea would be the simplest and the most practical.
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Why we did it.
We prototyped a hybrid car because in today's world, we are running out of fossil fuels, and our air is being polluted. This car, and other hybrids alike, could help the world become a cleaner, greener, place to live.
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Click that video over there to watch our car in action! ==> ==> ==> ==> ==>
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We started out doing trials of how long it took for the car to go the 5 meters. We needed to find the velocity of the car going 1 meter, so then we did a stopwatch at each meter. Next we found the average time it took to go 1 meter, and got 1.522 seconds. We also found the Kinetic Energy, using KE=1/2mv squared. Finally, we had everything we needed.
Conclusion
I think that our car did very well, and that our group worked productively. I definitely learned a lot in the project. I wish we could have gotten our plan straight earlier, because we couldn't start building until about the third day in, and we felt a little rushed. During our planning and building stages, so many things went wrong. The sheet metal was stolen on the bus, our axles kept breaking, our car didn't go far enough at first, the wheels weren't straight, and more. We solved these problems as they came up, and our car was working. We solved our time-management problems, and came to create our amazing Unicar! This project helped me a lot with problem solving and perseverance. These skills will definitely be useful in the real world when I am faced with challenges that may not be solved right away, but instead require revisions, and even starting over. At the end of the day, I walked away with more than just a hybrid car, but the patience and knowledge behind making it. |