Saturday, November 17, 2012
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 3: Disaster (Part 2)
Okay, this officially sucks.
Car 1 completely failed.
Guess what happened to Car 2? THE EXACT SAME THING! We are starting to realize that maybe CDs as wheels weren't the best idea... Even so, we are obviously not going to give up this easily. We stuck with using CDs and decided to stop using toothpicks for the structure of our car. Instead, Emily had the fabulous idea of using pencils- they are like huge toothpicks! Okay, so there's an up side and a down side to this. First of all, pencils are bigger and sturdier, so the hole of the CD would not be as big compared to the toothpicks. One thing that could hurt is the mass of the pencils, since they are a lot heavier.
Car 1 completely failed.
Guess what happened to Car 2? THE EXACT SAME THING! We are starting to realize that maybe CDs as wheels weren't the best idea... Even so, we are obviously not going to give up this easily. We stuck with using CDs and decided to stop using toothpicks for the structure of our car. Instead, Emily had the fabulous idea of using pencils- they are like huge toothpicks! Okay, so there's an up side and a down side to this. First of all, pencils are bigger and sturdier, so the hole of the CD would not be as big compared to the toothpicks. One thing that could hurt is the mass of the pencils, since they are a lot heavier.
Day 3: update
With little belief that we could actually make a car that wouldn't let us down for at least five seconds, we started building Emily's Second Draft Vehicle (referred to as Car #2). So far, Car #2 looks like it will work better than our first car did, but that could just be because we know nothing could be worse than our first vehicle... so, in a way, we could only get better.
Day 3: Disaster
We had such high hopes.. In this case, confidence didn't really come in handy...
As we were working on Shivani's Second Draft Vehicle, we faced one major problem. After finally getting the CD wheels in their rightful places, it got really hard to keep the car off the ground. The CDs kept slanting side to side and from their weight, the whole car would collapse one way or another- whichever way the CDs fell to. A whole lot of work went into taping on the balloon. Finally, with little hope left, we tested our car. It barely went two inches after the wheel at the head of the car slanted to one side, making the car fall to the ground. So much for that idea.
Bad News: Our first car was a total fail
Good News: We have a back-up plan (Emily's Second Draft Car!) that will...hopefully....work
As we were working on Shivani's Second Draft Vehicle, we faced one major problem. After finally getting the CD wheels in their rightful places, it got really hard to keep the car off the ground. The CDs kept slanting side to side and from their weight, the whole car would collapse one way or another- whichever way the CDs fell to. A whole lot of work went into taping on the balloon. Finally, with little hope left, we tested our car. It barely went two inches after the wheel at the head of the car slanted to one side, making the car fall to the ground. So much for that idea.
Bad News: Our first car was a total fail
Good News: We have a back-up plan (Emily's Second Draft Car!) that will...hopefully....work
Friday, November 16, 2012
Which One is Better?
Emily's Second Draft Vehicle vs. Shivani's Second Draft Vehicle
No point at the head of the car Point at the head of the car
(making a little more air resistance) (making a little less air resistance)
Very sturdy Not the best when it comes to strength... pretty weak
Weight more Weight less
Uses rubber bands for source of Uses balloon for source of force
force (making it like a slingshot)
Why this matters??? (Car 1 means Emily's Draft
Vehicle and Car 2 means Shivani's Draft Vehicle)
Since Car 2's head is not flat, it will have less air resistance than Car 1.
Car 1 is no doubt sturdier than Car 2, but does it matter if we have a sturdy
car or a vehicle just strong enough to hold a balloon?
Car 2 weighs less than Car 1 does, so Car 2 will experience less friction
Car 1 uses rubber bands while Car 2 uses a balloon as a source of power.
I am not sure if the balloon will make the car go in a straight or semi-straight
direction and I do not want to take a chance. For Car 1, Emily and I could
aim it so that when we let the rubber bands go, the car will move in a straight
line. Making the vehicle go in a straight-as-possible line is not only because
our requirements for this project is to keep the vehicle in a two tile width, but
because the shortest distance is a straight line. If our car goes in a curve, it will
lose the power from the rubber bands/balloon and may not end up to meet the
required distance.
No point at the head of the car Point at the head of the car
(making a little more air resistance) (making a little less air resistance)
Very sturdy Not the best when it comes to strength... pretty weak
Weight more Weight less
Uses rubber bands for source of Uses balloon for source of force
force (making it like a slingshot)
Why this matters??? (Car 1 means Emily's Draft
Vehicle and Car 2 means Shivani's Draft Vehicle)
Since Car 2's head is not flat, it will have less air resistance than Car 1.
Car 1 is no doubt sturdier than Car 2, but does it matter if we have a sturdy
car or a vehicle just strong enough to hold a balloon?
Car 2 weighs less than Car 1 does, so Car 2 will experience less friction
Car 1 uses rubber bands while Car 2 uses a balloon as a source of power.
I am not sure if the balloon will make the car go in a straight or semi-straight
direction and I do not want to take a chance. For Car 1, Emily and I could
aim it so that when we let the rubber bands go, the car will move in a straight
line. Making the vehicle go in a straight-as-possible line is not only because
our requirements for this project is to keep the vehicle in a two tile width, but
because the shortest distance is a straight line. If our car goes in a curve, it will
lose the power from the rubber bands/balloon and may not end up to meet the
required distance.
Building
We started building our prototypes today. After realizing my first draft of our scooter would not work (since it would have no wheels,
which would make to vehicle have A LOT of friction), we started building the
car in draft #2. So far, it is really flimsy, but I am hoping that will not
matter since it only needs to hold a balloon… hopefully the balloon doesn't blow all over the place and take the vehicle with it! Right now it’s too early
to find out... this vehicle could either work fantastically or be an epic fail.
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
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.
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.
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.
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