Day 04 - Test the Prototype Balloon Car
Prototype testing is a critical process in engineering, one that most students perform poorly. In STEM 3, we're going to require improvement on this score. To do that, you will need to collect specific data on the performance of your prototype under controlled circumstances:
- Define a track in the hallway (and take a photograph of that track to import to your EDP's Evaluation section).
- Have a method to ensure the balloon is inflated to the same level each time and that the car launches from the same point each time
- Measure the total distance down the track traveled by your car each time
- Measure the deviation from the track (left or right) each time
- Measure the time from start until stop each time
With this data, we will be able to construct tables in Google Sheets (much like you have done in Tucker's class) and we can analyze the graphs as part of our Evaluation section.
It might also be a good idea to take good photos of your prototype and to record video of it rolling down the track so you can precisely identify which parts of the prototype need to be adjusted.
Also, document ANY CHANGE to the prototype, especially if it is no longer built exactly the way your drawing indicated.
- acceleration
- the rate at which an object's speed changes
- compression
- squeezing an object to reduce the space it occupies
- intuit
- to know something without prior study
- Newton's laws of motion
- they remind us that objects need force to change direction or velocity, and that every force in the universe is opposed by its equal; also, F=ma, or force equals mass times acceleration
- pneumatics
- any technology using air pressure to do work
