Define a probelm
Goals of the Project:
1.) Make the fastest car
2.) Make the car as light as possible
3.) Make the car go more than one meter in a race
1.) Make the fastest car
2.) Make the car as light as possible
3.) Make the car go more than one meter in a race
Generate concepts
Brainstorming:
- Could not decide whether we should use light metal parts, or the normal metal parts that weighed twice as heavy. Eventually decided to use lighter metal parts as it would decrease friction therefore allowing us to increase speed.
-What kind of gears do we use? We decided to experiment and realized that using a bigger input gear and smaller output gear allowed us to increase speed but at the expense of our torque. We utilized an idle gear that helped increase the number of rotations for our output gear.
-What kind of axles and wheels to use? We struggled deciding whether we would have three or four wheels, which ultimately we went with a three wheeled vehicle. We also did not know if we should use smaller axles or smaller wheels, ultimately we went with bigger axles to keep the wheels in place, and bigger wheels in the back and smaller wheels in the front to hopefully utilize our aerodynamics and maintain balance on our vehicle.
- Could not decide whether we should use light metal parts, or the normal metal parts that weighed twice as heavy. Eventually decided to use lighter metal parts as it would decrease friction therefore allowing us to increase speed.
-What kind of gears do we use? We decided to experiment and realized that using a bigger input gear and smaller output gear allowed us to increase speed but at the expense of our torque. We utilized an idle gear that helped increase the number of rotations for our output gear.
-What kind of axles and wheels to use? We struggled deciding whether we would have three or four wheels, which ultimately we went with a three wheeled vehicle. We also did not know if we should use smaller axles or smaller wheels, ultimately we went with bigger axles to keep the wheels in place, and bigger wheels in the back and smaller wheels in the front to hopefully utilize our aerodynamics and maintain balance on our vehicle.
develop a solution
construct and test prototype
Solar: 2.84 volts, 0.02 amps, 142 ohms.
Hydrogen: 0.85 volts, 0.72 mAmps, 1.16 ohms
Hydrogen: 0.85 volts, 0.72 mAmps, 1.16 ohms
evaluate solution
Description: The testing results went better than expected as we got 1st place, but our speed was slower than expected as well as the car kept stalling. The modifications we had to make was changing the breadboard and removed it and plugged the battery and the motor directly together. As well as changed four wheels to three wheels, and lastly we changed the gears and added an idle gear and changed the torque. The mistakes we made was quite small, as we simply misaligned the motor with the gears but we did fix it before the competition. I learned a bit more about gears because I did not feel as confident prior, I also learned how to use a breadboard and a multimeter. My experience with solar panels, hydrogen cells, and batteries were interesting and fun to see. Solar panels gave more volts than expected which was not far off from the three volts batteries. Hydrogen cells produced a very low amount of volts which I was shocked at how hard it was to use renewable energy like hydrogen. Batteries were obviously a way more efficient use as it would charge the motor more which I personally liked better even though I would prefer solar for a renewable source.
present a solution
Limitations: From what I saw of renewable energy and batteries for example was that it was not as efficient in terms of how many volts it could provide, therefore we would be limited in how many things we could make with it, especially if it was technology that require a lot of volts. Although I am sure over time, renewable energy would be more reasonable as technology improves over time.