Water Bottle Car Write Up
What I Did
My partner and I built a water bottle car with an orange crush soda bottle, soda straw, cardboard, and paper for the cone.
We had criteria and requirements that the car had to follow. We had to make the nose cone, glue the wheels to the axles, put the straw on the axles to glue to the cardboard bottom, glue the cardboard bottom to the bottle and then we were done. Sounds pretty simple, but let me tell you that to construct a model or anything else takes patience. That is one quality my team lacked a little too much of and that is why were never able to put the wheels on the car. Eventually we just borrowed a friend's wheels whose car got destroyed. One problem that we had was attaching the wheels to the axles. The glue was not working as fast as we wanted it to. The purpose of this assignment was to design and build a water bottle car that can travel a distance. We were be ranked by the speed of our car. We had to connect the bottles to the pressure pump then we had to pump it full of air with the tool on the right. Then we had to press a button to release the cars. The trials for this assignment weren't as serious and the card car's, so we had a lot fun launching the cars.
We had criteria and requirements that the car had to follow. We had to make the nose cone, glue the wheels to the axles, put the straw on the axles to glue to the cardboard bottom, glue the cardboard bottom to the bottle and then we were done. Sounds pretty simple, but let me tell you that to construct a model or anything else takes patience. That is one quality my team lacked a little too much of and that is why were never able to put the wheels on the car. Eventually we just borrowed a friend's wheels whose car got destroyed. One problem that we had was attaching the wheels to the axles. The glue was not working as fast as we wanted it to. The purpose of this assignment was to design and build a water bottle car that can travel a distance. We were be ranked by the speed of our car. We had to connect the bottles to the pressure pump then we had to pump it full of air with the tool on the right. Then we had to press a button to release the cars. The trials for this assignment weren't as serious and the card car's, so we had a lot fun launching the cars.
trial.m4v | |
File Size: | 2472 kb |
File Type: | m4v |
What I Learned
I learned several scientific concepts from this assignment such as inertia, Newton's second law of motion, Newton's third law of motion, rolling friction, sliding friction, and fluid friction.
Inertia, also known as Newton's first law of motion states that anything that is in motion remains in motion until acted upon by an outside force, for example gravity. It also says that anything at rest will remain at rest until acted upon by an outside force like gravity. This means that anything that is moving will keep moving until you or something else stops it and that anything lying still will remain still until you or something else stops it. During the trials for the water bottle car, all the cars eventually came to a stop. Most of them didn't stop because of friction, although that plays a large part in the car's travel, they stopped because they crashed into something. Most of the time it was the small stone pillars that were to the left of our launching area. Those pillars were the force that stopped the cars. If the pillars were not there then the cars would have stopped from friction and if we were in space then the cars would have never stopped. Once they stopped, they didn't keep moving or start moving again. They were at rest and they were going to stay at rest.
Newton's second law of motion states that to move a mass, a force must be applied to it and it will accelerate. If you hit an object with force than it will accelerate, but if the object has too much mass then the force cannot carry the object and it will have no acceleration. The smaller the mass, the less force is needed to propel the object. The more the mass, the more force is needed to propel the object. For the water bottle cars, we had to guess how much water we were going to put in the bottle. If we put too much water in the bottle, the mass would be too much for the force of the thrust to carry. If we put too little water in the bottle then the force of the thrust would not be enough to propel the bottle to it's full velocity. It was pretty hard to guess how much water to put in the bottle. Mathematically if you want to find out the force it will take move an object a certain velocity, you would have to multiply the mass and the velocity that is desired.
Newton's third law of motion states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. If you throw a ball against a wall, it will bounce. It bounces because the wall pushes back. The wall is giving an opposite reaction with an unbalanced force. When it bounces it comes straight back at you until gravity takes affect and it falls to the ground, but if we were in space it would come back the exact direction that you threw it and due to inertia, it would keep coming straight for you. Our water bottle car encountered this effect because of the thrust of the bottle as it released from the pump. The thrust was due to the air pressure. As it thrusts backwards, the bottle car rolls forward. The air being released from the back of the bottle was the action and the bottle had an opposite reaction to it so it moved forwards.
Rolling friction is the resistance to roll. The water bottle cars encountered this affect because they were rolling on the ground. Rolling friction can be decreased by having smooth wheels roll on a smooth surface. Rolling friction can be due to bumps, cracks, and other surface imperfections. The cars that didn't crash during the trials eventually stopped because of rolling friction.
Sliding friction is resistance to slide. Sliding friction can reduced by increasing the smoothness of the surface. The smoother the surface is the less sliding friction there will be. The water bottle cars encountered this effect in the release from the air pump. As the trials continued, the nozzle or connector to the air pump was banged up a little bit and that increased sliding friction.
Fluid friction is the resistance to move through liquids and gases. The water bottle cars did not really encounter this effect, but fluid friction is the reason we made the nose cone. With the nosecone, the cars was able to move through the air swiftly. Building a nose cone was a method to reduce fluid friction and it worked to some extent.
Inertia, also known as Newton's first law of motion states that anything that is in motion remains in motion until acted upon by an outside force, for example gravity. It also says that anything at rest will remain at rest until acted upon by an outside force like gravity. This means that anything that is moving will keep moving until you or something else stops it and that anything lying still will remain still until you or something else stops it. During the trials for the water bottle car, all the cars eventually came to a stop. Most of them didn't stop because of friction, although that plays a large part in the car's travel, they stopped because they crashed into something. Most of the time it was the small stone pillars that were to the left of our launching area. Those pillars were the force that stopped the cars. If the pillars were not there then the cars would have stopped from friction and if we were in space then the cars would have never stopped. Once they stopped, they didn't keep moving or start moving again. They were at rest and they were going to stay at rest.
Newton's second law of motion states that to move a mass, a force must be applied to it and it will accelerate. If you hit an object with force than it will accelerate, but if the object has too much mass then the force cannot carry the object and it will have no acceleration. The smaller the mass, the less force is needed to propel the object. The more the mass, the more force is needed to propel the object. For the water bottle cars, we had to guess how much water we were going to put in the bottle. If we put too much water in the bottle, the mass would be too much for the force of the thrust to carry. If we put too little water in the bottle then the force of the thrust would not be enough to propel the bottle to it's full velocity. It was pretty hard to guess how much water to put in the bottle. Mathematically if you want to find out the force it will take move an object a certain velocity, you would have to multiply the mass and the velocity that is desired.
Newton's third law of motion states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. If you throw a ball against a wall, it will bounce. It bounces because the wall pushes back. The wall is giving an opposite reaction with an unbalanced force. When it bounces it comes straight back at you until gravity takes affect and it falls to the ground, but if we were in space it would come back the exact direction that you threw it and due to inertia, it would keep coming straight for you. Our water bottle car encountered this effect because of the thrust of the bottle as it released from the pump. The thrust was due to the air pressure. As it thrusts backwards, the bottle car rolls forward. The air being released from the back of the bottle was the action and the bottle had an opposite reaction to it so it moved forwards.
Rolling friction is the resistance to roll. The water bottle cars encountered this affect because they were rolling on the ground. Rolling friction can be decreased by having smooth wheels roll on a smooth surface. Rolling friction can be due to bumps, cracks, and other surface imperfections. The cars that didn't crash during the trials eventually stopped because of rolling friction.
Sliding friction is resistance to slide. Sliding friction can reduced by increasing the smoothness of the surface. The smoother the surface is the less sliding friction there will be. The water bottle cars encountered this effect in the release from the air pump. As the trials continued, the nozzle or connector to the air pump was banged up a little bit and that increased sliding friction.
Fluid friction is the resistance to move through liquids and gases. The water bottle cars did not really encounter this effect, but fluid friction is the reason we made the nose cone. With the nosecone, the cars was able to move through the air swiftly. Building a nose cone was a method to reduce fluid friction and it worked to some extent.