Mousetrap Car

        Speed of car: 6.57s
        Place in F block: 5th
     

This is a model of our car that we used. 

The wheels: 2 CD's in the back with balloons wrapped around the edges and a toy car wheel in the front with two bottle caps glued on either side

The sides: two light weight pieces of wood attached to the mouse trap

The axel: in the back we used a medal small axel and then drilled it through a piece of glue to make it thicker and in the front we used the same metal axel but without 

The lever arm: we used a pencil as our lever arm and fishing line as our string

          The mousetrap car can be related to all three of Newton's laws. Newton's first law states that and object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by and outside force and an object at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force. This is related to the car, because once the car is moving the only thing that will stop it from moving is an outside force. This outside force could be a physical object or it could be friction. Our mousetrap car stopped because there was a lot of friction. The mousetrap caused it to move but once the friction caught up with the car it was brought to a stop. The car will not start to move unless acted upon by and outside force, in this case the mousetrap itself is what causes the car to move forward. Newton's second law states that acceleration is proportional to force and inversely proportional to mass. This means that the more force applied the car the more the car will accelerate and the smaller the amount of mass the faster the car will go. We tried to use the lightest weight wood and wheels because we knew that less mass meant it would  travel faster. The amount of force applied is also important to make the car move faster. We used a lever which created more force and more acceleration. Newton's third law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This is seen in the care in several different ways. One example is that when the car pushes down on the floor while moving the floor pushes back on the car. Another example is when the mousetrap pulls the string that is wrapped around the axel the axel is pulling the string. It is important to remember that these forces are equal and opposite.

       There are two types of friction that are present. The first type is static friction which is only seen when the car is at rest. Static friction is what what makes it difficult for the car to begin to move. The other type of friction is kinetic friction which is see when the car is in motion. Kinetic friction slows the car down when it is in motion. One problem we had with friction was with the wheels. We added balloons to the wheels in order to make it smoother and thus decreasing the friction. We also encountered friction when designing our axels. We chose to use a thicker axel to attach the string to because in this case we used friction to our advantage. This is because it was applied closer to rotation thus making the torque smaller requiring less force. One mistake we made was that we glued two bottle caps to the front wheel which created more friction. It was good to have friction on the back wheels so that they wouldn't slide but the added friction to the front wheels made it harder for the car to accelerate. 

        When choosing our wheels we wanted something lightweight because we know that the smaller the mass the greater the acceleration because of Newton's third law. We also decided to use larger wheels in the back (CD's) because they were the wheels that controlled the whole car. We chose to have only one wheel in the front, because it would mean less mass and a smaller rotational inertia. A smaller rotational inertia means that the wheel will rotate more.The wheel in the front was only there so the car would move, it did not control the car. One mistake we made was that we glued two bottle caps to either side of the front wheel which added mass and it created more friction. Our car still made it 5m but it would have been a lot faster if the front wheel had a lower rotational inertia. The way to lower this rotational inertia is by making the wheel smaller.
         Before the mouse trap car was moving it had the highest amount of potential energy. Potential energy is the amount of energy an object has right before it begins to start moving. Once the car was in motion it's potential energy lowered while the kinetic energy became greater. Kinetic energy is the amount of energy an object had while in motion.When the car was at it's highest velocity it had the most amount of kinetic energy. Once the car started to slow down again though it's kinetic energy lowered and it gained potential energy in return.
       For our lever arm we used a normal pencil. It was shorter than the length of the car and without it our car would not have traveled 5m. For our first test trial we tried attaching the string just straight to the mousetrap without and sort of lever arm and it only made it about 3m. By using the lever arm we increased the torque and by increasing the torque we increased the rotation. There are three ways of increasing the torque. One way is by adding more force. The second way is by increasing the lever arm. And the third way is by doing both of these things. We just increased the lever arm which increased the torque and required less force. 

        Rotational inertia was seen in our wheels. The larger the wheels the more rotational inertia. The more rotational inertia the wheels have the harder it is for them to rotate. We had larger wheels in the back that had more rotational inertia than the front wheel. This causes them to be the wheels that drive and control the car though. Like the train wheels the larger wheels control the car. We chose a small wheel in front because it was just there to keep the car moving so we wanted it to have a really low rotational inertia. One mistake we made though was gluing two bottle caps to either side because this increased the rotational inertia making it harder for the wheel to rotate. The wheels have different rotational velocities because one wheel is smaller than the other wheels so it is rotating more than the back to wheels. All of the wheels have the same tangential velocity though because all three wheels are covering the same amount of distance in the same amount of time.
        Work is the measure of how much force is done in a certain amount of distance. We are unable to calculate the amount of work the spring does on the car because we don't know the amount of force the spring is putting on the car. We also don't know the potential energy and the kinetic energy in the spring that the car used. If we knew this information it could help us calculate the work because work is equal to the change in kinetic energy which is equal to the change in potential energy. We are unable to find the kinetic and potential energies because we do not know the mass of the spring in relation to the car. KE=1/2mv^2 we know the velocity but we cannot find the KE without knowing the mass. Same thing goes for PE. PE=mgh we know the gravity but we do not know the m and the h so we cannot find the potential energy. The reason that we cannot find the force the spring uses on the car is because we do not know the mass and we would have to calculate the acceleration since force=(mass)(acceleration).

Reflection

We followed our original design pretty well. We kept everything except once we did our first trial run without a lever arm we realized that we had to have a lever arm if we wanted our car to travel the 5m. One thing that we added that  made it worse was we glued two bottle caps to the front wheel. This created more rotational inertia which made it harder for the wheel to rotate, slowing down the car. We thought that this was necessary to make the car stay in place but it was not necessary. If we were to do this project again I think I would make the car have a smaller mass. This would mean not using wood but just try to connect the mouse trap straight to the axels because the smaller the mass the faster the car would go. I would keep our wheel set up though because I think that the small wheel in front (without the bottle caps glued to it) and the two CD's in the back worked well. Overall I was happy with our car though because it made it the 5m and it was overall successful although it was not very fast.

Unit 5 Reflection

Work and Power

Work is the amount of force that is applied for a certain distance, and it is measured in Joules.
         WORK=FORCE X DISTANCE

If you were to lift up a box that weighs 20N 2m high, how much work would you do? Using the equation work=fXd you would get 400J.

You can only do work if you are lifting an object. You are not doing work if you were to just carry a box for a certain distance. You are not doing work, because the force and distance are parallel. The only way you can do work is if the force and distance are perpendicular (carrying a box).

Another example of someone doing work is running up a set of stairs.

The man in this picture has a force of 600N and he is moving up a set of stairs with a distance of 10m, how much work is he doing? 

      He would be doing 6000J of work. It is important to remember that the distance is not distance of

      the stair themselves but it is the height of the stairs. 

Power is the amount of work that is done in a certain amount of time, and it is measured in watts. Another way to word it is how quickly work is done. (power=work/time). 

Here's an example problem:
If you do 6000J of work in 60 seconds, how much power was produced?
    Power=work/time
    Power=6000/60
    600 watts

Work and Kinetic Energy

Work and energy are connected because work is the change in kinetic energy. This means that the work will always be equal to the kinetic energy. Energy is the ability to do work. Kinetic energy is the change of movement. It is related to the velocity because the equation is KE=1/2 mv^2. In order to fin the change of kinetic energy you must know the finial KE and subtract the initial KE.

Here's an example:

If a car is moving 20 m/s and requires 10m to stop. How many meters will it take to stop if the speed of the car is 40 m/s?

First you must realize that work=forceXdistance then remember work= the change in KE.
KE=1/2 mv^2
since you are going twice the speed you plug two in for v
which equals 4
this means you are going 4 times the speed and since work=KE you doing 4 times the work and going 4 times the distance.




Another question that is related to both work and KE is: why do airbags keep us safe?

Conservation of Energy

The conservation of energy means that the change in potential energy is equal to the change in kinetic energy. Potential energy is the energy stored within an object. It means that the energy has the potential to do work. In order to find the potential energy you must know the mass, gravity, and the height. The equation looks like this PE=mgh.
Kinetic energy is the energy of movement. It depends on the motion of an object. In order to find the kinetic energy you must know the mass and the velocity. The equation looks like this Ke=1/2mv^2.
The energy is conserved because when you lose one you gain the other.

Here is an example:

The ball doesn't hit the womens face because it was dropped from rest. This means it will not get any higher than it was dropped from. When she drops it the ball has the most amount of potential energy and the least amount of kinetic energy. The ball while in motion loses it's potential energy and when it is straight it has the highest amount of kinetic energy and the lowest amount of potential energy. 

Energy is always released in some shape or form. A car for example does not use all of its energy to accelerate forward. The energy is also released in ways like heat, light, vibration, and sound. 

In order to find out how efficient an object is you would calculate work out over work in.

Machines

Machines are used when you are trying to move a heavy object. They are useful because they make the objects easier to move. Machines make it easier because they require less force. They sacrifice force for more distance. If you were to lift the same exact heavy object without using a ramp you would do the exact same amount of work since work in = work out. The difference is that you use much more force when lifting the object over a short distance. With the machine you use more distance and less force.

Machines are not always used to lift objects. Another example are metal cutting shears. These shears have very long hands with much shorter blades.

These are able to cut through metal because the handles are long. This means that less force is required to use them. 

Here's an example question: If two people are in charge of putting some boxes into a bus that is 1m tall and they both grab 200N boxes but one person uses a ramp while the other lifts the boxes, who does more work?

They do the exact same amount of work because, one person uses more force while the other person uses more distance.
work= F X d
vs.
work= F X d

This unit in physics has been challenging for me. I felt rushed when learning these concepts and I never fully understood every aspect. I am comftorable  with work and power but once it gets into kinetic energy and potential energy I get lost. There are still 2 big questions that I am struggling with but I think with more time (when I study) I will be able to go over them a few times and be ready for the test. This unit though I would say I have caught up with.  I have done all of the homework assignments and watched all of the videos. I just feel like this is one of the hardest units and I still feel a little behind even though I have done all the work to stay caught up. I feel like I have put a lot of effort in though. Next unit I will continue to study for each quiz and begin studying for the tests further in advance. I think that now that I have prepared in advance for this test I should be ready!




 

Simple Machines

A simple machine is something that is used when you are unable to apply enough force in order to lift an object. A machine allows you to lift heavy objects. Machines help you to lift large objects because they increase the distance which means less force is required. When you do not use a machine you are required to use much more force because the distance is extremely small.(F)(d)=(f)(D). This means that the work will be the same as well. work in=work out. Bill Nye is really good at explaining the different ways machines are used and how they work. He explains where the work in is and the work out. Bill Nye is awesome and I think that this video is really clear.

Work and Power

This video does a really good at explaining work in force in a relatable way. Work is the amount of force applied for a certain amount of distance. If you were pushing a box with a force of 20N for 2m then the work applied would be 40J. Work= force X distance. Work is not applied if the force is not parallel though. For example if a waiter is carrying a tray there is no work being one on the tray. He explains how work is seen in a grandfather clock. When the cylinders inside the clock move in order to power the clock they have to be moved with a force that is equal to their weight. Power is how quickly work is done. In order for there to be power there must be work that is applied. Power is measured in something called watts. This video provides step by step explanation of how to find power and weight using a grandfather clock as the example. I really liked this video because it simplifies the whole concept and gives relatable and common examples.

Unit 4 blog reflection

Rotational and Tangential Velocity and Inertia

What is rotational Inertia?
-The property of an object which resists changes in motion
-It depends on: mass (more mass=harder to spin) (less mass= easier to spin)

Rotational velocity?
-How fast you rotate

Why do runners bend their legs instead of keeping them straight?
-Because when they bend their knees, they are bringing them closer to the axis of rotation. The closer to the axis of rotation the less inertia and the easier it is to move.



The skater is experiencing the same thing:

In the first picture her mass is spread out far from her axis of rotation so she will have more rotational inertia so she will not go as fast.

In the second picture her mass is brought towards the center, so she will have less inertia thus making her rotational velocity increase.




What is tangential velocity?
-The linear speed of something moving along a circular path

How does a train's wheels stay on the track?

In this picture the inside part of the wheel to the left has a higher tangential velocity than the one to the right because it is larger and covering more distance.

Since the tangential is higher on the inside of one wheel, it causes the train to tilt inward and self correct.

Who has a higher tangential velocity on a carousel? Rotational?

-The person furthest from the center has the greatest tangential velocity

- They have the same rotational because the go around the same amount but the person on the outside is covering more distance than the person on the inside so they have a higher tangential velocity.

In these gears how does the Tangential and Rotational velocities compare? 

The smaller gear in this photo will rotate twice while the bigger one rotates once which means they have different rotational velocities. They have the exact same tangential velocity though because they cover the same amount of distance in the same amount of time.

How does Inertia apply when you are rounding a curve in a car and you push up against the car door?

-Since you are still moving forward when the car is turning, the door is the object that stops you from moving in that direction and causes you to move in the direction of the car again

Conservation of Angular Momentum 

How do you find the angular momentum?

-angular momentum before = angular momentum after

-angular momentum = rotational inertia X rotational velocity 

What does angular momentum rely on?
 -rotational inertia
 - rotational velocity

When someone is running and they bend their knee, what happens to their mass as they bend their knee?
-their mass is lowered and so is their center of gravity which stays within the base of support


Torque 

What is torque?
 -it causes rotation
 -torque= force X lever arm
 -the larger the force to greater the torque
 -the larger the lever arm the greater the torque

What is the lever arm? 

 -the distance from the axis of rotation

For example: 

In this picture more force is required to push the door when you are pushing towards the hinges.

Less force is required when you push the door further from the hinges because the lever arm is larger.

*BIG TORQUE = BIG ROTATION*

If you attached a rope to the end of a wrench would that increase the torque? Why or why not?
 -no because the lever arm actually isn't longer since you are unable to apply a large force on it. You would need to use something stronger like a pipe.

Where is the best place to put a door stop: in the middle of the door or the edge?
 -towards the edge because it would require less force than the middle of the door since the lever arm is longer

Center of mass/ gravity

What is the center of mass?
 -An object's average position of all of the mass

How does an object balance?
 -If the center of mass stays within the object's base of support

Why do you bend your knees in sports?
 -gives us a big support base
 -makes it so that your center of gravity lowers and remains within the base of support

Why is it more beneficial for a tight rope walker to hold a pole that droops?
-because it lowers the center of gravity so you won't have a torque
-so that you can distribute your mass-->balance

Why is it better to hold two buckets rather than one?
-so that the mass is distributed which creates balance

If you draw a picture and draw a straight line coming from the center of gravity down and it stays within the base of support it means it will not fall over. If you draw a different picture and the box is tilting and the center of gravity is outside of the base of support it will fall over. (sorry I can't draw a picture-tech difficulties)

Centripetal and Centrifugal force

What is centripetal force?
-a force that is center seeking
-for example if you are driving around a curve the centripetal force is what causes the car to curve

What happens in a washing machine?

The water is in motion so it will continue to stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force and in this case the centripetal force is not acting on it so it will continue moving.

CENTRIFUGAL FORCE IS NON EXISTANT 

But some say that centrifugal force is what pushes you against your car door when you are rounding a corner. This is not true. What is happening is due to inertia. An object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. In this case your body is still moving forward and the car door is the object that stops you and makes you move in the direction the car is going again.

This unit went pretty well for me. I enjoyed the concepts that we learned and I overall did well on my quizzes. My quiz grades was something that I wanted to improve and I think that I reached this goal. It took me a little while to fully understand rotational and tangential velocity but once I really sat down and really wrestled with it I finally got it. Next unit I want to focus again on my quiz grades, and I think that if I am able to do well on my quizzes I will do well on my test. Overall I really enjoyed this unit and the labs that we did. I think it went smoothly because I really tried to stay focused in class.

Meter stick Challenge

Challenge: find the mass of a meter stick using only a meter stick and a 100g (.1kg) lead weight.

Finding the Torque of the left side of the meter stick:

First you must balance the stick on a table. My meter stick balanced at 25cm, and the center of gravity would be the middle of the stick which is 50cm. There is then 25 cm between where the stick meets the table and where the stick reaches center gravity.

Next it is important to know that:

            TORQUE= (FORCE) (LEVER ARM)

In this case you know that the force on the left of the ruler (where the weight is) is (.1kg)(9.8). The 9.8 represents gravity. 

             TORQUE= (.1kg)(9.8)(lever arm)

As mentioned before we already know what the lever arm is. The lever arm is the distance between the weight and the table, which is 25cm. 

              TORQUE= (.98N)(25cm)

So...

TORQUE= 24.5Ncm

This picture shows the lever arms, where the center of gravity is, and where the force is.

Finding the Torque of the right side of the stick:

First it is important to know that the torque on the left side is the exact same torque as the right side. 

Once you know that you use the same equation:

       TORQUE= (FORCE)(LEVER ARM)

The torque is 24.5

        24.5= (FORCE)(LEVER ARM)

We also know the lever arm. It is 25 cm, because the distance from the place the stick touches the table and the center of gravity.

         24.5=(FORCE)(25cm)

Then you solve for force

         FORCE=.98

Solving for the mass: 

Now you have the torque (which is the same on both sides of the stick) and you have the force, you must solve for the mass.

To solve for the mass you use the equation:

        w=mg

We know the weight because we used it before. The weight is (gravity)(the weight), so .98

        .98=mg

We also know that gravity is always 9.8

        .98=9.8m

Then you just solve for m

         m=100g

The mass of the meter stick is 100g 

We were able to figure out the mass of the meter stick by calculating the torque and then plugging it in to find the force which we then used to find the mass. The only way that this stick could balance on the table is if the torque's are both equal. We got .1 kg as our calculation which was very close to the actual mass which is .117 kg. 

Torque and The Center of Gravity

This video explains what Torque and the center of gravity is. Torque is a perpendicular force applied over a lever arm (distance from axis) causing rotation. In the video the man talks about how a door will rotate around it's hinges which is the same as saying you have applied a torque. It is impossible to rotate the door if you push it parallel, you must apply the force perpendicular in order to apply a torque (cause the door to rotate). As the video states, you want to push the door as far away from the hinges as you can. This will create a larger lever arm which allows the door to rotate. You can increase the torque by increasing the force, increasing the lever arm, or both.
Center of Gravity is the average placement of all your weight. It does not have to be in the exact center of the object. The video explains that you can find the center by hanging the object from something or you can find the center of gravity by rotating it. If you want something stable you must make sure that the center of gravity does not cross over the base of support. If the center of gravity goes over the base of support it will most likely topple over.
This video really helped to further my knowledge of these two concepts, because it provided good examples that were then thoroughly explained.

Torque and center of gravity video