Why Are These Projects on The Same Page?
This web page contains two projects on it. The first is the trebuchet building, Fire Away! assessment and the second is the hybrid car task, Move It. The reason they are on the same page is because the projects have a few similarities. The first is we had the same group for both projects, secondly both shared similar physics concepts such as spring potential energy and friction, and lastly both shared a similar objective of getting an object to move a certain distance. Enjoy looking through both amazing projects.
What Was The Fire Away Project?
In the fire away project, we were tasked with building a trebuchet capable of firing a projectile as far as possible. What we decided upon was a wooden base with two "legs" drilled on. Between then was a rod which connect to our "arm". The arm had a nail on it which the projectile rests on. A bunch of rubber bands tied together connected the base and arm, and acted as our spring. As we worked on the project we had to keep modifying our trebuchet till it fired the projectile as far as we could. One of these included removing our weight and replacing it with the aforementioned rubber bands. In this web page you will find our proof of efficacy document which details our calculations, progress of building, pictures, and material list.
What was the Move It Assignment?
With this task, our goal was similar to the previous project but with a different execution. This time we had to get 2 rolls of pennies to 5 meters safely. Many groups built a vehicle with wheels, but we decided to try something different. We took we had learned from the Fire Away! assignment and used rubber bands. Our vehicle consists of a wooden box with a hinge to open and the close the device, bubble rap on the inside to protect the pennies, a 500 gram weight to increase friction and make it go slower (this is further explained in the google slideshow below), and a strand of rubber bands which pull the box forward and to 5 meters. Below you will find more information in our google slides presentation, a picture and video of the vehicle, and a reflection and physics concepts for both projects.
Concepts:
Distance V. Time- A distance v. time graph shows the amount of time it takes for an object to travel a certain amount of distance. In our graph which can be viewed below, the x-axis represents time in seconds and the y-axis shows distance in meters.
Velocity- The rate of which a distance is covered in a direction. Velocity is commonly displayed in meters/per second (m/s). In both of our projects we found an average velocity for our trebuchet (a total velocity of 19.4 m/s) and in our vehicle (On average the vehicle went 2.42 m/s).
Spring Potential Energy- This is the energy that becomes stored when an elastic object is compressed or stretched. The unit used to represent spring potential energy is joules. We found that our trebuchet had a PE of 2.8J and the vehicle had about 175J.
Gravitational Potential Energy- The energy of an object due to its position or gravitational field. This is in relation to gravitational acceleration of 9.8 m/s^2. This is also represented in joules. Our vehicle’s gravitational potential energy isn’t that important since our vehicle stayed on the ground the entire time. For our trebuchet we had about 29.4J of energy.
Kinetic Energy- Kinetic energy is energy that is caused by the act of motion. Like all types of energy on this page, the unit for it is joules. Once our objects started moving, the potential energy is transferred into kinetic energy. Our vehicle had a kinetic energy of 7.07J and our trebuchet had 1.8J.
Thermal Energy- This type of energy is converted to heat. Potential energy that is not transfer into kinetic becomes thermal energy. For our trebuchet and vehicle as the PE decreased the TE increased.
Friction- This is the force that acts opposite to the direction of motion. Friction played a large role in our vehicle as we added extra weight to it to use friction in our favor to get the vehicle to go closer to 5 meters.
Spring Constant- This is a good way to find a springs tendency to go back to its original form. The unit for this is N/M. Since both of our projects have springs in them, this is something we had to calculate. The trebuchet has a spring constant of 140 N/M and the vehicle had 31.61 N/M.
Power- The work that is done at a certain rate. This is measured in watts. Finding power was especially important in our hybrid vehicle, which on average had 11.647 watts of power.
Velocity- The rate of which a distance is covered in a direction. Velocity is commonly displayed in meters/per second (m/s). In both of our projects we found an average velocity for our trebuchet (a total velocity of 19.4 m/s) and in our vehicle (On average the vehicle went 2.42 m/s).
Spring Potential Energy- This is the energy that becomes stored when an elastic object is compressed or stretched. The unit used to represent spring potential energy is joules. We found that our trebuchet had a PE of 2.8J and the vehicle had about 175J.
Gravitational Potential Energy- The energy of an object due to its position or gravitational field. This is in relation to gravitational acceleration of 9.8 m/s^2. This is also represented in joules. Our vehicle’s gravitational potential energy isn’t that important since our vehicle stayed on the ground the entire time. For our trebuchet we had about 29.4J of energy.
Kinetic Energy- Kinetic energy is energy that is caused by the act of motion. Like all types of energy on this page, the unit for it is joules. Once our objects started moving, the potential energy is transferred into kinetic energy. Our vehicle had a kinetic energy of 7.07J and our trebuchet had 1.8J.
Thermal Energy- This type of energy is converted to heat. Potential energy that is not transfer into kinetic becomes thermal energy. For our trebuchet and vehicle as the PE decreased the TE increased.
Friction- This is the force that acts opposite to the direction of motion. Friction played a large role in our vehicle as we added extra weight to it to use friction in our favor to get the vehicle to go closer to 5 meters.
Spring Constant- This is a good way to find a springs tendency to go back to its original form. The unit for this is N/M. Since both of our projects have springs in them, this is something we had to calculate. The trebuchet has a spring constant of 140 N/M and the vehicle had 31.61 N/M.
Power- The work that is done at a certain rate. This is measured in watts. Finding power was especially important in our hybrid vehicle, which on average had 11.647 watts of power.
distance_v._time.xlsx | |
File Size: | 5 kb |
File Type: | xlsx |
Reflection:
With this being our third and fourth STEM projects, I feel like I’m starting to become more familiar with the process of doing these assignments. On the trebuchet project, I felt I did well on the modification step. I felt like I did a good job of changing our machine to make it as efficient as we could make it. A particular example of this is when I constructed a couple of our ideal projectiles. Another component of this task I believe I excelled in was my contribution to the hybrid car slideshow. I feel I did a good job with the aspects of it I worked on. These include the video, intro to our project slide, the selling points, and two of the graphs. I felt particularly proud on making the graphs, as that's something I had struggled with.
Even though I feel I did a great job on these projects, there are some aspects where I need to improve. One thing I can improve upon is my presenting skills. When we presented our hybrid car, I felt like I wasn’t confident enough and messed up what I said. For next time we present, I will try to be more self confident and practice more before hand. Secondly, I feel like I should have helped more every step of the way. This is more for the Fire Away! project as I feel I did better on this for Move It. I didn’t help as much on the construction of our trebuchet as I would have liked. This will continue to be a key goal to work on since this has been a goal for me for most of the semester.
Even though I feel I did a great job on these projects, there are some aspects where I need to improve. One thing I can improve upon is my presenting skills. When we presented our hybrid car, I felt like I wasn’t confident enough and messed up what I said. For next time we present, I will try to be more self confident and practice more before hand. Secondly, I feel like I should have helped more every step of the way. This is more for the Fire Away! project as I feel I did better on this for Move It. I didn’t help as much on the construction of our trebuchet as I would have liked. This will continue to be a key goal to work on since this has been a goal for me for most of the semester.