Our goal was to make a car that did not run on gas
Lots of cars run on gas, obviously. But when they do, the environment is harmed greatly when the car releases CO2. In order to solve that, why not have a car that DOESN'T run on gas? Cars like the Nissan Leaf and the Tesla Model S (and more obscure ones like the Denza Executive and the ZAP Xebra) run on electric, but while it's slowly catching on, it would be great if there was a car BETTER than all of the gas cars that would instantly get them out of the market. So we were "hired" by "Hyundai" to come up with a car that could go 5 meters and then stop. But also, people would want to buy it, so there had to be many selling points to it. And we came up with a car that, with our research, could potentially sell well in USA, Europe, China, Korea, India AND any other place that would want it. One more important thing: This car could NOT join the electric car bandwagon. It had to run on some other force...
INTRODUCING...THE WHEATIES BAHXSTER!!!!
(We spelled it "Bahxster" instead of "Boxster" so Porsche can't sue Hyundai if the car actually goes on sale)
The Wheaties Bahxster came to us when we came up with the idea of making a car that was powered by wound-up rubber bands. When the bands were released, the car needed to have enough friction to move forward on the ground, but not TOO much so that the rubber bands would generate enough force to move the car.
We ended up using an old Wheaties cereal box along with duct tape, CDs, BBQ skewers, rubber bands, bottle caps and some cardboard. We then had to go give a powerpoint presentation about why our car was better than the rest of the competitors. I helped with the idea and working on the car, but my main job was to gather all of the calculations and to put together the powerpoint.
This project had a lot to do with energy, such as thermal, kinetic and potential energy. Potential energy is how much energy is stored in the wound up rubber bands before all of it is released. Kinetic energy is how much energy is released when the car moves. When PE decreases, KE increases. There is also thermal energy, which is all of the energy from PE that doesn't turn into KE, but instead turns into heat. Unfortunately, not a lot of the car's PE turned into KE. In reality, it moved a little bit and just produced a lot of heat. On the bright side, we actually DID get it to go 5 meters!
Time management sucked. It was kind of a close shave, considering that 2 of our 3 members didn't show up one day and the 3rd found that the car wasn't functioning and couldn't figure out what was wrong (an axle was rubbing against part of the car). Also, someone broke our car on accident. That set us back. I also admit that I was a little bit confused with all of the energy equations and I kept getting mixed up and had to backtrack a few times. But we did do some things well. Like for example, we were resourceful. I guess you don't really take pride in building your car by doing nothing but dumpster diving, but hey, using resources that were easy to obtain led us to only having to pay for BBQ skewers, a cereal box and some CDs. And we were able to think of reasons why every major country would like it. More storage space than a US truck, more MPG than a European city car, more innovative than a Japanese Mitsubishi i-MiEV, and we also came up with the infamous "Bahxster/Gangam Style Theory", a theory that will get this car to sell like crazy in South Korea. It's not very scientific, distinguished, or even important but is pretty amusing. You can check it out here (make sure you scroll down to December 4, 2014).
But that's pretty much it. In the end, I don't think "Hyundai" thought it was the best that there was to offer but it was certainly awesome!
Unfortunately, I would love to show you guys our powerpoint presentation, and I know it's possible to do so on Weebly...I just don't know how. Sorry :/
(We spelled it "Bahxster" instead of "Boxster" so Porsche can't sue Hyundai if the car actually goes on sale)
The Wheaties Bahxster came to us when we came up with the idea of making a car that was powered by wound-up rubber bands. When the bands were released, the car needed to have enough friction to move forward on the ground, but not TOO much so that the rubber bands would generate enough force to move the car.
We ended up using an old Wheaties cereal box along with duct tape, CDs, BBQ skewers, rubber bands, bottle caps and some cardboard. We then had to go give a powerpoint presentation about why our car was better than the rest of the competitors. I helped with the idea and working on the car, but my main job was to gather all of the calculations and to put together the powerpoint.
This project had a lot to do with energy, such as thermal, kinetic and potential energy. Potential energy is how much energy is stored in the wound up rubber bands before all of it is released. Kinetic energy is how much energy is released when the car moves. When PE decreases, KE increases. There is also thermal energy, which is all of the energy from PE that doesn't turn into KE, but instead turns into heat. Unfortunately, not a lot of the car's PE turned into KE. In reality, it moved a little bit and just produced a lot of heat. On the bright side, we actually DID get it to go 5 meters!
Time management sucked. It was kind of a close shave, considering that 2 of our 3 members didn't show up one day and the 3rd found that the car wasn't functioning and couldn't figure out what was wrong (an axle was rubbing against part of the car). Also, someone broke our car on accident. That set us back. I also admit that I was a little bit confused with all of the energy equations and I kept getting mixed up and had to backtrack a few times. But we did do some things well. Like for example, we were resourceful. I guess you don't really take pride in building your car by doing nothing but dumpster diving, but hey, using resources that were easy to obtain led us to only having to pay for BBQ skewers, a cereal box and some CDs. And we were able to think of reasons why every major country would like it. More storage space than a US truck, more MPG than a European city car, more innovative than a Japanese Mitsubishi i-MiEV, and we also came up with the infamous "Bahxster/Gangam Style Theory", a theory that will get this car to sell like crazy in South Korea. It's not very scientific, distinguished, or even important but is pretty amusing. You can check it out here (make sure you scroll down to December 4, 2014).
But that's pretty much it. In the end, I don't think "Hyundai" thought it was the best that there was to offer but it was certainly awesome!
Unfortunately, I would love to show you guys our powerpoint presentation, and I know it's possible to do so on Weebly...I just don't know how. Sorry :/