BL Car Building Business

BL Car Building Business By: Bradley Blasberg and LIam ADamczyk

Introduction

What Is a Rubber Band Car ?

A rubber band car is a car that is made out of cardboard, 2 CDs, duct tape, and a skewer. It is powered by a rubber band. He are the steps to create the car: We started with a 5 by 5 inch piece of cardboard. We then cut in the front 1 and 1/2 inches in and 2 inches across. We then add a skewer in the front and put a piece of duct tape on the front so it would move. We then taped a rubber band to the back so the car would be powered.

What are Elastic and Kinetic Energy?

Elastic Energy is potential mechanical energy stored in the form of a physical system or material. Once the object does work, it distorts its system or shape. Kinetic energy is the energy of motion. If an object has motion, it has kinetic energy.

How is Elastic Potential Energy turned into Kinetic Energy?

Elastic Energy increases when you stretch out rubber band. As you wind the band up more, there is more potential Elastic Energy. When you let go, kinetic energy is increased, causing the car to travel farther and faster.

Modifications

We rolled Duct tape around the skewer. This created a more stable connection between the CD and the skewer. This modification caused the car to turn go straight and not turn as much, which would slow down the car. This caused the car to go 48 feet.

We had it so the so the open space for skewer was .5 inches in and 3 inches wide. This modification made the car lighter which caused it to go faster. This also made it so we were able to wind the rubber band up more without it hitting the sides. This modification got us to 34 feet.

We modified the tail, making last into the back where the skewer stuck out. We did this because it was less material on the back to slow down the car and touch the ground which would cause tension. This modification was used in the final car which got 48 feet.

In this modification, we added a tail to the back of the car which helped reduce friction in the back which would slow down the car. We went on to find out that the skewer was better, but this design got 28 feet.

This is our best car which got us 48 feet. It has good wheel connections making the car more sturdy. We also have a back skewer which causes it have less surface for tension.

How We Used the Video Physics App

We used the video physics app to help interpret acceleration and velocity by filming our car and marking its movement with dots. These dots on the graph correspond with the dots that we placed on the video to mark the cars movement. We then used a meter stick to show a measurement of distance for the video, this helped find the speed of the car and its acceleration.

How We Calculated the Acceleration of the Car

This is the formula for acceleration which we had to use by looking at the graph and examining two points with the greatest acceleration. Then we would take the points and plug them into the formula. When we calculated the acceleration of our car, we found that it was .12 meters per second.

Video Analysis

Car Video

We used this camera angle so we could see it was going in a straight line. We needed to make sure we could use a meter stick to show a measurement of distance so we could test for velocity and acceleration.

Appreciate