Rubber Band on Car, Technical Report - Research Paper Example

Table of Contents 3 Objective 3 Introduction 3 Discussion 4 Tests and results 8 Analysis 8 Evaluation 8Conclusion 9 Abstract The research paper seeks to find out the science behind the propulsion of rubber band enabled cars. In essence, a rubber band car is a small car driven by a single or more rubber bands. The rubber bands induce the car with mechanical power which in turn drives the vehicle along a certain path. Normally, these kinds of cars have potential type of energy which is stored in the object. Potential energy is then converted to kinetic energy when the rubber band is released. In effect, the vehicle is propelled by the same power and thus travels along a specified path. Contextually, the rubber band is the only source of energy to these kind of cars which is responsible for its movement. Intensely, energy efficiency is attained when the stored energy is transformed into another form of energy in order to aid movement (AAPT 2014). Furthermore, energy efficiency rate of the rubber band cars can be determined by recoding the time it takes to cover a certain distance. The car will come to stoppage after only it has exhausted its kinetic energy and thus stops. The car under experiment ordinarily must travel a linear path owing to the principle of rubber band connection on the back of the axle of the car. Objective The research paper is aimed at examining the inertia, potential and kinetic energy, wheel and axel, friction, momentum as well as the mechanical concept behind the rubber band enabled car. Introduction Technically, mechanical machines should be powered by certain source of energy that drives them to achieve work done. In the context of mechanical terms, two obvious types of energy are considered; potential and kinetic energy (Anderson 2013). Distinctly, kinetic energy is basically the energy that is in motion whereas potential energy refers to unused energy or the energy that is stored. These two kinds of energy play a crucial and vital role in both the design and movement of the rubber band cars. Majorly, the project seeks to investigate the relationship of both kinetic and potential energy in the propulsion of rubber band enabled cars (Anderson 2013). Evidently, rubber band is one of the basic and vital item in the design of these cars. Demonstratively, a rubber band is stretched and released (Anderson 2013). The stretching gives the object a certain amounts of potential energy owing to its ability to expand. The stretched component when released, the potential energy is immediately turned to kinetic energy. Likewise, the same principle is used in the design of rubber band vehicles (Trax 2004). The potential energy is hold by the rubber band which when released, a kinetic energy is emerge and thus drives the car to a certain distance.Apparently, force is needed to drive the object from one stationary state to another point. Force is termed as any influence that will result to acceleration of the object. The force that acts to resist the movement of an object in contact is termed as friction. Inertia is used to determine the degree of object’s mass. It is also termed as the quantity of matter in any object. Acceleration is the degree at which the velocity changes as the object moves. It’s defined by velocity change. Apparently, the force applied in the rubber band vehicle is proportional to the acceleration. In essence, greater force will yield a higher acceleration compared with less force (Lawrence 2005).Inertia is also affected by the weight of the object. The lighter the object the less the inertia while the heavier the object is the higher the acceleration. Discussion The rubber band car movement is a straight line motion and therefore it’s very important to investigate the effects of other forces on the movement. The velocity also changes with time. The object is considered when a single force acts on it in the inertial context. Evidently, the motion of a rubber enabled car is affected by forces such as friction which reduces the velocity of the object. Figure 1: plan view of the designed cart Figure 2: rear view of the cart Figure 3: side view of the cart Some of the basic items considered in the design were the size of the propeller, the thickness of the band, the turning of winds of the propeller as well as the mass of both the wheels and the object. These factors play a vital role in the movement of the car. It was realized that the thicker the rubber band the higher the speed of the car which translate the longer distance travelled. This is because thicker bands are possessed with higher amounts of energy which triggers the movement of the car to greater distances. Notably, increase in the amount of potential energy will translate an equal amount of energy in the kinetic energy. Basically, energy is managed by certain principles such as the law of conservation of energy. The concept elaborates that the energy can neverbe created nor destroyed. The law confines the design and working principle behind the rubber band car motion. The stored energy cannot be wasted or destroyed but converted into a useful form of kinetic energy which propels the car (Anderson 2013). The move of coiling the rubber band on the axle back of the car technically means a potential energy is created. The stored potential energy will in return translates into a kinetic energy which enables the car at rest to move. Ideally, the change of potential energy into kinetic energy would seemingly result to an endless motion of the car but in reality, the motion of that car is greatly affected by external forces such as friction. Frictional force resists movement of any object. In effect, this friction energy convert kinetic energy into heat and sometimes sound energy which in the long run weakens and reduces the energy of the car thus causing it to come at rest after covering a certain measurable distance. The task that lies ahead with researchers is to come up with a vehicle that is less prone to friction which loses energy at a slightly lower rate compared to present day where vehicles loose more energy due to friction(Anderson 2013). Furthermore, friction being the main factor of lowering the speed of mobile objects, it is very important to look for ways that will alleviate this problem. Similarly, heavier objects will translate a higher rate of friction which implies much energy consumption and less work done is achieved. Besides, the smaller the force of friction the high the amount of energy to move the vehicle. The concept obtained from such analysis is that vehicles moving with slow pace will result less air resistance subjected on them and hence the will travel further than fast-moving cars. In order to analyse the time used to cover a specified distance of the rubbed band, the power and force are some of the vital factors to be considered. When energy is applied, a force is generated, which in return, applies directly to the object hence causes object’s movement in the direction of superior force (Chen et al 2014). Energy is scientifically expresses in joules or Newton meters. Energy is elaborated into two forms; Potential energy (P.E) = Kinetic Energy (K.E) = Thereby, the velocity of the rubber band car is obtained by measuring the speed of the object in motion within a specified line path(Anderson 2013). Velocity is therefore defined as The initial movement of the rubber band car is from rest with potential energy to which immediately transforms into the kinetic energy when the car is moving. The key idea acquired from this energy transformation is that, when the object starts to move or when in motion, it has the capability to do work which is measured by force multiplied by distance moved (Force x distance). Force is further analyzed by considering the following expression; When the force has been applied on the car, it then moves in a certain direction which has both magnitude and direction referred to as vector. When the object travels fromrest to a maximum velocity, a change is realized which is known as acceleration(Lawrence 2005). Acceleration is therefore given as; Acceleration After attaining the maximum velocity, the object is realized to decelerate. Deceleration is mainly due to external forces (Chen et al, 2014). In general, a number of factors cause the object to decelerate and they include but not limited to friction, gravity, wind, drag and inertia. These forces must be overcome achieve the desired objective. Inertia Primarily, inertia deals with the mass of the object. Inertia is also affected by the force of gravity on a certain object mass. The body of the rubber band car is always at inertia (Trax 2004). This force of inertia is possessed by any object when at rest and an optimum amount of energy is always required to overcome the inertia in order to move the object. From the newton’s second law of motion, the acceleration is always directly proportional to the net force acting on the body and inversely proportional to the mass of a body (Trax 2004). This implies that mass of a body resists change while acceleration cause the change in velocity. The force in return results to acceleration. The idea derived here is, the lesser the mass of the object the faster the speed while the heavier it is, the less the speed. In its initial of the design of the rubber band car, it is very awful to consider the mass of the object in order to come up with a product which will allow enough force to achieve the maximum acceleration. Lastly, newton’s third law should be considered in analyzing the rubber band car forces. When a body exerts a certain force to another object, the object will exert equal but opposing force to the first body (Chen et al 2014). In addition, as the rubber band car is powered, the drive wheels exert a force on the base floor and the base floor resists by pushing back on the car hence resulting to the car movement or acceleration. The vehicles acceleration is constrained by the engagement between the floor and the wheels. Tests and results The car was set on the floor with the rubber band side being down. The car is powered by rubber band. The rubber band wastherefore loaded onto the gear box of the car. The car is pulled backwards in order to wind rubber the in the gear. The winding was done until the rubber band is tightly stretched. The car was then released slowly to let it go by itself. The car travelled until it stops by its own. The distance covered by the car was then recorded. Several tests were carried out while recording each distance. Upon release, the car travels along a straight path and in the same direction. Car accelerated pretty fast and then it would back up a little before stopping Table 1: results obtained after testing Collected data Test Distance travelled (m) Time (s) Speed (m/s) Test 1 3 10 0.3 Test 2 3.5 11.5 0.304 Test 3 3 12 0.4 Test 4 3 10 0.3 Average 3.125 10.875 0.3261 Analysis From the results obtained, the car was travelled along a straight path and finally stops. This is due to various forces acting against it. Rubber band car are simple both in its design and workability. It raw materials are readily. It is also cheap to produce and fabricate (Anderson 2013). On the other hand, it has shorter life because the rubber bands do not last for long. The motion is also affected by frictional as well as inertial forces which reduces the acceleration of the car. Evaluation As outlined above, the inertial force is caused by the mass of an object. The heavier the car the higher the energy and thus the force required to initiate a motion is higher as compared to lighter cars. Lighter cars on the other hand lacks enough friction to start the car into motion. Ideally, this suggest that the weight of the car should be designed and planned in such a way that it is moderate in order to be reduce inertial force and also to support itself in movement by overcoming the frictional force. The effect of the lever must also be put into consideration. Conclusion Irrefutably, the motion of the rubber band car is greatly affected by several resistant forces such as friction and inertia among others. In effect, the band enables the car to travels in a straight line upon its release (Lawrence 2005). The winding of the rubber band is possessed with elastic potential energy which when released, the stored energy transforms into kinetic energy and hence causes motion of the car. The test results carried out indicates that the car travelled along a certain direction. The car decelerates with distance due to frictional force between the floor and the wheels. In conclusion, the experiment objective was achieved through the analysis of various forces and energies. References AAPT. 2014. “Physics Education.” American Journal of Physics. AMBER. 2014. “Rubber Bands.” Engineers Journal. Lawrence, Krauss. 2005. “Forces and Motion along a Line.” The Physics of Star Trek. Lin, HC, AC Chen, and TW Lin. 2014. “Newton Laws of Motion.” Journal of applied Mechanics. Trax, Gator. 2004. “Mousetrap Cars Module.” Engineering GatorTrax. W, Anderson. 2013. “Snappy Science Stretched Rubber Bands are Loaded with Potential Energy.” Scientific American. Read More