Designing and Building an Electronic Car

 

 

 

 

 

 


Place the RISE girls into cooperative groups of four. Have the girls work together to share the responsibilities of recording data and manipulating materials.

 

The Challenge

 

"Your group's challenge is to use the materials provided to build a car that moves across the floor. You cannot push it."

 

The Investigation

 

The following questions are to be used by the teams to help guide them and suggest some issues they will need to address. Brainstorm possible answers to the questions:

1. How many turns does the motor have to make for each turn of the wheel?

2. What happens if you reverse the connections to the battery?

3. How much weight can you add to your car before it ceases to move?

4. Trace the flow of energy in the car.

5. Draw a diagram of the electric car. Include only the major parts.

Using the letters from the list below, identify the areas where energy is transformed from one form to another.

A. Changes chemical to electrical energy.
B. Changes chemical energy to mechanical energy.
C. Changes mechanical energy to electrical energy.
D. Changes mechanical to chemical energy.
E. Changes electrical to mechanical energy.
F. Changes electrical to chemical energy.

6. The car you have built does not conserve battery power; it keeps going until the battery runs out. Think about how you would enable the car to start when desired, aside from reconnecting the wires to the motor each time.

 


Quantifying the Car's Performance by Measuring the Batteries


Use the following guidelines to evaluate your batteries. Answer all questions for each battery. Brainstorm possible ways to answer the questions.

1. Name of battery.

2. What is the open circuit voltage of the battery?

3. What is the mass of the fully charged battery?

4. What is the volume of the battery?

5. What is the range of the car?

6. What is the maximum speed of the car?

7. What is the steepest grade the car can climb?

8. What is the battery voltage when the car no longer moves?

9. What is the mass of the discharged battery?

 

 


Vehicles can be powered by an electric engine rather than by gasoline. This is in keeping with the law of conservation of energy:

Energy cannot be created or destroyed - it can only be transformed from one form to another.

 



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For further information contact Catherine Raymond, Deputy Director of Education.