Electrical Car

Objective

The objective of this project was to design and build a battery powered car. We also wanted to improve our mechanical, brainstorming, and thinking skills to help us in the future.

Preparation

First, before we started building the electrical car, we had to do some miniature experiments. We did a little project working with series and parallel circuits and we were looking at how they work. After, we did a project with a breadboard and resistors and then, a switch-controlled motor experiment. After those experiments, we started our electrical car.

Materials

• gears (sizes 16,40,42/10,and 60)
• an aluminum chassis
• 1 d.c. motor
• 3 axles (2 -3mm in diameter,3-3/4" long and 1 -3mm in diameter,2-3/4" long)
• 1 machine screw
• 20 washers,
• 4 polyethylene wheels
• double - sided foam tape
• 2 battery holders
• 2 AA batteries
• a conduit strap
• a wing nut

After we made sure all the car parts were there, we started building the electical car.

Materials For The Frame

• One- sided corrugated cardboard
• Magazine clipings
• Aluminum

Procedure

• First, we brainstormed on what to do with all of the parts.
• Then,we thought of many gear combinations to use for our car which would have a good gear ratio.
• We decided that there should be four gears on the car, combined in such a way that there would be a low gear ratio.
• Then, we put washers on the axles after the gears on the car for spacing and balance, and to reduce friction between the wheels and the gears.
• After, we put the d.c. motor into the conduit strip and screwed it into the chassis.
• Then, we added a switch to the car to turn it off and on.
• After, we had to think of a body frame to decorate the car. We came up with a space frame for the car.

Several days later, we finished the frame of the car and we were ready for the competion.

Discussion

We had many obstacles to overcome in creating our car.The first obstacle was deciced the best gear ratio for the car. Gear ratio is the ratio or the number of times it takes the motor to spin to make the wheels spin once. For our car to spin or drive really fast we would have to have a low gear ratio.So we put four gears on the car for it to move faster and have a lower gear ratio. The second problem we had was balancing the car. The way of going about this problem was making the wheel inlinement perfect and adding washer, which with reduce friction between the wheel and the gear.We also added a non- working motor in the back of the car to balance it out and both motors are the same weigh,so there won't be more weight in the front than in the back.