Overview: In this project, we were assigned to create a alternate energy car, not using chemical or nuclear power. In my group (Blake Carlile, Agusten Soto) we decited to use solar power energy, since it was a realistic prototype for a car, and we were willing to spend more to have a impressive and well-working product in the end. In our car, there are solar powered battery's, a solar panal to charge the battery's, small motors, wires, wheels and a base. for the project, we needed to have a prototype for the car, that would be able to carry a mass of 250 grams, and to be able to stop at 5 meters. Below is our final result. unfortunately, we were unable to make the car completely stop, due to time.
Calculations: Work: The amount of energy put into something. Velocity: The rate of distance covered in a direction. potential energy: The energy an object has due to its position Kinetic energy: The energy an object possesses due to motion. Thermal energy: Energy in the form of heat Amps: The SI unit for energy. Potential energy and kinetic energy:
PE=A * V * W/3600 = J PE= 1.5 Amps * 2.74 Volts * 4.11 J/3600 PE= 26.20 J KE= ½ M V^2 KE= ½ .104kg * .78 m/s^2 KE=0.0316 J Velocity of car: V= change in distance/change in time V= 5m/6.39s V= .78m m/s
Reflection: Out of all of three previous projects that I have done, I would say that this has been my favorite project so far. I thought that my group worked well together, and everyone in my group were very hard working and dependable. However, we did have a lot of problems along the way. one of our first problems was that the motors were very sensitive, and they would not carry a lot of weight, but we had very nice wheels that we had to give up. Then, one of our wires broke, and we had to find another way to connect it to the car. Then, we couldn't make the car go straight, which was another problem we had to fix. But, I would say that after solving these problems, it was very easy to put the electrical parts together, and it worked very well. I think that I should have been more of a leader, because Blake was really the one who knew what to do from the start, while I had no idea how cars even worked. I think I also needed to share more of my ideas, because I felt like I really didn't contribute much in that aspect. Overall, I really liked the group that I was in, and I would say that I learned a lot.