Jet car report

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Sam Ryan
Science
Mr. Lammers
     This year in science the core 3 class had a project called the Jetcar project. In this project the class had to make a car out of basic materials including a balloon and wheels. There were three different goals of the project: you could attempt the distance challenge, where for an A+ you had to have your "Jetcar" travel 8 full meters on its own. There was the speed project where your car had to travel 3m in as little time as possible, for an A+ in this challenge you had to go 3m in 1.5 seconds or less. There was also the jump challenge where to get an A+ your car had to jump between tables that were 50cm apart. Each person could try for whatever project they wanted, and the goal was to master that project. In order to get a good grade in this project each individual person would have to understand aerodynamics, friction, drag, and precision. Overall It was a fun but hard project.
     When I did the project I got an A+ in the distance challenge by going 10.10m. I think that Mr Lammers made the distance project so that you had to go 8m. to get an A+ because you could get a 7m run or a 6m run but in order to get 8m you had to upgrade your car, prototype, and be patient, I think that an 8m run is very different from a 7m run because you had to truly master the distance challenge to get 8m. I also attempted the speed challenge and got 3m in 1.32 seconds. To me this challenge wasn't as hard to master as the distance challenge because there wasn't so much of a leap between A and A+, all I did to get an A+ on this project was test my distance car in the speed challenge, it probably would have been more fun if I had had to work for the A+.  I think in order to master this challenge, your car had to be light but stable, it had to have a lot more power than required by any of the other tests, it had to have minimal friction and minimal drag. Both projects required skill from the car designer and the designer also had to understand and meet the requirements put forth by the test. Along with being challenging the project was fun because it was more involved and represented physics in a fun way.
     The perfect balloon Jetcar made with the same materials that the project provided would be a car with a note card deck and straw axles, straw axles are where the straws are attached to the car and the wheels are attached to sticks that are put thought the straws, the balloon could be pumped up all the way and never pop. The car would be heavy enough to handle the force the balloon gave without spinning out, but light enough to move fast but in a straight line. It would have a double exhaust because in order to be a perfect car it would have to complete all 4 challenges including speed and jump. The weight challenge would be tricky but the car would be strong enough to carry the amount of weight required to get an A+.
     My ballon Jetcar had some problems in the the prototyping but they were fixed along the way, the way my car worked is it would let out a large amount of air at once and give it a huge burst of speed and then the car relied on its axles to roll another 4-7m., I think this technique was one of the winning styles because it worked better than other styles I had seen by then. I wanted my Jetcar to be a three wheeler but encountered problems because there was no where for the balloon to rest on the deck, so I made a hub for the front wheel and this only complicated my car making it hard to work with and impossible to run without constant maintenance. I fixed this problem by making the car have 4 wheels which did make it heavier but also gave certain advantages that came with the weight like it had more stability ad went straight more consistently. I also wanted the car to run for a long time having the air coming out of the balloon very slowly but conserving the time that the air would be coming out, I later realized that this idea could work but I had a better one, just make the air burst out and have it roll for a long time, this worked better until a car that had my earlier propulsion design beat my record, then I second guessed this decision. The same problems that you face while building a balloon Jetcar could also appear if you were a car designer. If you where a car designer you could have problems with the weight and stability of your car. You would want the weight be able to handle the propulsion that the car gave out and you wouldn't want the car too heavy because then you wouldn't be using your propulsion as effectively. Also cars have to be made steady, they can't veer of to one side. Cars have to have very accurate parts that all work in an effective and efficient way.
     I think that this project was a great project, one of the things that kept me going during this project was creativity to see if I changed something if it would affect something that would in turn make the car go farther or roll better. I think this project helped me understand how things work a little better because I got to figure it out myself and still have a goal in mind. I didn't really have a problem with perseverance because I wanted to move forward because of the good things I would learn and the excitement the next step would bring me to.  In the next science project I will try to find this willing to understand and I think that that alone can get me through most stuff.