Reflection

On the day of testing, we saw many different designs. Some of them were vehicles we would never think of to build-- the Mousetrap was among the many. Their group used an actual mousetrap with a fishing fishing wire attachted to it. It was observed that the wires were winded around the back axels of the cars resulting in the total distanced traveled of 29 tiles. There were others with ideas that we had both considered using or had used; in the long run. we realized they wouldn't work or go as far as we were aiming for. Similar to us, many other people had balloon powered cars as well. Out of these, a few worked, but there were some that would not even move. A possible cause could have been that the balloon was facing in a way were its air flow was either being restricted or in the wrong direction.

Our car worked well at first, but kept turning around at around the fourth/fifth tile. If it had kept going straight, the vehicle would have definitely gone the distance of eight tiles, or so recorded from previous testing. If this project was done over again, something that would have been added is another set of small and light wheels in the front. Even though this would result in more mass and create more friction, the front wheels may have stopped it from turning. If we had kept the car with only two wheels, part of the draft that could have been changed would be the balloon. Instead of just letting go of the balloon, there could be, like another team had thought of,  two straws put into the hole of the balloon, limiting the air flow, yet making the wind stronger and more precise the whole time. This design was actually thought of and tested earlier, but we only used one straw and it didn't work, so we moved on to another idea without adding the number of straws. This project can help in further investigations about real cars or machines used for transportation in general. For example, when air comes out of the balloon, its backward force pushes the vehicle forward. This is the same type of way a rocket travels because the fuel of the rocket sends the airship flying as well..

Day 4: Testing and Revision

Meeting up again, we finally got to test our --not so-- hopeful vehicle. The first few tests that weren't recorded didn't quite go in a straight line. The scooter kept on turning and, in the end, moved backwards. There were also problems with the balloon dragging on the ground, resulting the scooter to come to a stop. To fix these problems, some adjustments were made:

• sticking straw through the balloon(though that didn't work...).
• making the hole of the soda top smaller by adding on tape(though that only restricted more air from coming out of the balloon; the vehicle traveled even less).
• blowing up the balloon more, hoping that the air would release powerfully in a straight stream(but it wasn't much help either).
• lathering the bottom of the balloon with water (which didn't really work)
• Putting a paper (which we thought had less sliding friction) underneath the balloon (but there was even more friction from that, causing the scooter to travel less).

Final Design Draft

Final Draft

Day 3: Pencils? Toothpicks? Markers? WE DON'T KNOW!!!

We are going use toothpicks again. After starting to use markers, we realized they would be too massive to use... now we are using a combination  of markers and toothpicks.

Day 3: Maybe We Should Have Planned Better...

Since pencils have sides to them (they are not perfectly smooth), we are not going to use them any more. Instead, we decided to use markers, which are round. I knew from the beginning that the first drafts were not going to work perfectly or that the second drafts were not the best either. What I didn't know was that both drafts would end up being such a let-down. Both of us are going crazy trying to find a solution to our problem with the CDs. This may be the answer.... using markers.

Day 2: Starting the Construction

For the second meeting of our building project, Shivani and I asked beforehand to borrow a hotglue gun from Mr. Villavicencio's class earlier in the day; we've aquired a pink hotglue gun and two
rolls(?cylinders?) of solid glue. I've put them into my safekeeping until I went to Shivani's house. At her home, we got started on creating the mini prototypes and then to the actual vehicles.
Our choice of materials were toothpicks and using CDs as the wheels. There are some pros and cons to these items.

Pros:

• vehicle will be light and will have a very small intertia
• less resistance to movement/change
• can possibly travel far
• wheels will be sturdy
• won't break easily
• small air resistance

Cons:

• structure may be too light/weak
• could fall apart/break
• toothpicks don't have much mass
• small momentum=inability to travel far
• CDs can't travel
• not enough friction to even move across tiles

Some problems were occured during this meeting. One would have to be the glue that kept--accidentally-- burning us, causing our hand to shake, leading to the breakage of toothpicks. The dried glue strings were also a hassle, but were capable to being used as "ropes" to tie corners of toothpicks together. At this point, the thought of using pencils being the structure and axels of the vehicles was vaguely considered.

Shivani's Drafts

Shivani's 1st Draft



Shivani's 2nd Draft

Emily's Drafts (1st and 2nd)

Emily's 1st Draft



Emily's 2nd Draft

Day 1: Gathering Our Ideas

The two of us met up with each other to discuss and show off our ideas and drafts. There are requirements of 3 prototypes, so we spend the rest of the time creating new, updated drafts. Because none of us were able to finish all three, homework was to brainstorm until the next meeting of more prototypes. At that time, future ideas will be discussed and models/prototypes will be created; vehicles will hopefully be started on by then as well.

Discussed Ideas:

Types of Wheels:

• CDs
• Cup lids (the plastic lids of soda cups)
• Beads
• Crumpled paper
• Tape rolls
• Bottle caps
• Car wheels (legos) 

Made of?

• toothpicks
• paper
• wood
• legos
• straws
• containers
• glass.... ?

Number of Wheels?

• one
• two
• three
• four
• six
• eight

Source of Power?

• balloons
• springs
• rubber bands
• water bottles (pressure form air inside)
• air

Structures (By both)

Made of?

• toothpicks
• paper
• wood
• legos
• straws
• containers 
• glass.... ?

Number of Wheels?

• one
• two
• three
• four
• six
• eight

Source of Power?

• balloons
• springs
• rubber bands
• water bottles (pressure form air inside)
• air