By: Mariana Edwards & Antoinette Tucker
Purpose |
The purpose of this project was to research different car designs and then create a car that we felt would produce the best results compared to the other cars. Results would include things like speed, distance, and if the car travelled in a straight line. After the testing of the car, with the collected data, our goal was to determine average velocity and momentum for 10ft and then for the whole trip.
procedure
Materials:
-plastic water bottle - 4 bottle caps -tape
-Skewers -balloon -drill
-straws -tiny rocks
- hot glue gun -scissors
-plastic water bottle - 4 bottle caps -tape
-Skewers -balloon -drill
-straws -tiny rocks
- hot glue gun -scissors
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Data Calculations
Mass: 50g
Trial: 1 Time for 10ft: 7 secs Total Time: 7 secs Total Distance: 10ft Lateral Distance: 4.5 Avg Speed 10 ft: 1.43 ft/sec Avg Speed Trip: 1.43 ft/ sec Mass * Speed 10ft: 21.75 g*ft/s Mass * Speed Entire Trip: 21.75 g*ft/s
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Total Distance=
15 inch squares * 7 squares= 112in 112in/12in= 10ft Avg Speed: Average Displacement/Average Time 10ft/7 secs= 1.43ft/s Mass *Speed(Momentum)= 50g * 1.43ft/s= 71.5g *ft/s Zee Value: D-3E 10ft- 3(4.5)= -3.5 Efficiency: D(ft)/M(g) 10ft/50g= .2ft/g |
Results
Overall our car did not go as planned. Test day our car did not perform, however we still managed to get it to go 10ft outside of school and our car didn't come in last for every category, which for us was somewhat of a good thing. We could have increased our momentum by increasing the mass of the car and increasing the speed since the mass was only 50g and the speed was 1.43 ft/s, giving us a low momentum of 71.5 g*ft/s. On the other hand since we chose a lighter car, we were able to gain a high efficiency. Sources of error could have been the wheels or the balloon and straws. If there was a hole in any of the straws, that could have caused air to be released form the balloon too quickly or even not allow enough air in to make it travel far. As for the wheels, they could have just simply been too small to carry the weight of the bottle. Ways to improve the overall car would be to use bigger wheels that could serve as better support for the car, which would automatically increase the mass. Lastly we could find ways to increase the velocity.