Egg Drop Challenge Competition Results

Going into the challenge our container weighted about 215.3 grams and had dimensions of 24x23x13.  After a successful full drop of 5m in 0.976sec our egg was in perfect shape and we managed to earn 92.6 egg points, which though is not the best, I was pretty happy with it being our container was so heavy. (photo credit to nic)

Our egg after a successful drop

I think one of the biggest restrictions while building was the size factor.  In order for our container to fly like we wanted it too we had to have a far larger wingspan than we could get inside of the regulations.  This caused us to have to change how our container worked and how we were going to approach the challenge.  I think the most successful part of our design was using the insulation for the padding.  It worked very well and kept the egg unbroken through some of the harder falls that we endured.  It took away a lot of the force and softened the blow considerably.  In order to safely support 2 eggs instead of one I wouldn't change a lot to the design except maybe putting a bit more padding in between the two eggs to keep them from breaking on each other.  Other than that I think it is big enough and the lift on the wings great enough to keep the eggs from breaking.

Egg Drop Challenge Test Day

During test day things went pretty good though not how we expected them to go at all.  We had originally planned on making a sort of airplane to direct the force more forwards vs. down to keep the egg in tact.  When we did our first test though (from 5m) the container just fell straight down and tilted so the wings were useless and the egg was smashed.  After that we gave up on the forward flight and just weighted the front end of the container so it was balanced and it worked by falling perfectly level so the wings could do their work and slow down the container and the egg survived.  All the tests after that one worked out perfectly and consistently and we never broke an egg again. (the video below shows one of those successful tests)

Racer Recommendation

          Some of the things that went well with our car was that when greased the axles spun really well in the axis and once we screwed the front wheel so it was tight and not wobbling it rolled way better.  Some tips for future racers are to make sure that the wheels are straight, level, well aligned and don't wobble as this will best utilize the power exerted by the mouse trap.  For the race itself it would be nice to have the course meters marks better defined so its easy to tell how far your car went.

Post Race Reflection

    

        Our car on race day did reasonably well according to how we though it was going to go.  We got 5th place in the distance with a distance of 10 meters and 6th place in the drag with a time of 5.75 seconds.  If we would have had the chance to work with out car after I would have made sure the chassis was straight and the string held on to the axle consistently.  The back left wheel also needed straightening as it was pretty wobbly.  If I could build a whole new car I would make it out of lighter material and make a better attachment for the string to the axle, as it slipped a lot.  On our old car the rear wheels really needed to mounted level so it went straight and true.

 

Drag Race

Mousetrap Vehicle Test Day

Setting the trap

Wrapping the string around the axle

        Last Thursday we did our mousetrap vehicle tests.  My group, Corie, Rae, and I took our vehicle to the math hallway and started testing it.  At first we were having trouble as the axle wasn't turning very well but we fixed that with some grease and it now goes at least 6 meters before turning left and crashing into the wall versus just 3 meters and just stopping.  We also added electrical tape to the tires to add traction and we also glued the axle to the wheel so it didn't slip and waste torque.Our vehicle was pretty easy to operate though it was sometimes tricky getting the string to catch so we could wind it up. 
       One of the biggest problems we now have to overcome is getting the vehicle to go in a straight line and we will have to bend the chassis in order to do that.  Once we do that I am confident that it will go 10 meters no problem.

Spring Break Physics

Even though I was out of classes for this week, I still experienced physics in many ways.  One of the biggest ways was when I went snowboarding.  When you are snowboarding there is many ways that different aspects of physics affect you and your snowboard.  There is the gravitational pull which is what makes you go down the hill.  There is also the whole factor of friction between your board and the snow, which affects how fast you go.

Following

Today we started following some of the other students blogs and also started commenting on them.  We also worked on setting some settings on our own blogs.