Explanation of Work:
We were assigned the task of building a machine ti launch a projectile as far as possible. Our group built a trebuchet that launches a far distance pretty consistently. We spent about 2 days building it and the next few days tweaking it and doing the calculations. Overall our group worked pretty well together and made a pretty good design. |
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Reflection:
Overall our group worked pretty well together, however there are some things that I and our group could work on. One thing that I need to work on is leadership and also finding things to do without asking someone else. Some things that our group could work on is figuring out ways to improve the design even though it is pretty much finished. This is because once we finished the original design we barely made any good modifications. Another pit was that we lost our clay ball twice on the first day when we launched it onto the roof. Also there are a few peaks. These peaks include, that we launched our ball over 50 meters. Another peak is that we got the only spring which helped us out a lot.
Overall our group worked pretty well together, however there are some things that I and our group could work on. One thing that I need to work on is leadership and also finding things to do without asking someone else. Some things that our group could work on is figuring out ways to improve the design even though it is pretty much finished. This is because once we finished the original design we barely made any good modifications. Another pit was that we lost our clay ball twice on the first day when we launched it onto the roof. Also there are a few peaks. These peaks include, that we launched our ball over 50 meters. Another peak is that we got the only spring which helped us out a lot.
Concepts:
- Mass of projectile: The mass that he object that we launched has in kg or kilograms.
- Horizontal distance: The distance that he projectile traveled lengthwise.
- Time in air: The time that the projectile stayed in the air for after launch. (between launch and landing)
- Vertical distance (d= 1/2a*t^2) t= time falling: The distance that the projectile traveled upwards (or downwards)
- Horizontal velocity (v=d/t):The speed at which the projectile travels horizontaly
- Vertical velocity (v=at): The speed at which the projectile travels vertically (upwards or downwards).
- Total velocity (a^2 + b^2= c^2) The vertical and horizontal velocity combine.
- Spring constant (k=F/d): The strength of the spring giving the force.
- Initial spring potential energy (PE spring = ½ k x^2): The initial amount of energy that is supposed to be used by the spring.
- Kinetic energy of the ball (KE = ½ m v^2): The energy of the ball while it is flying. (total right before hits the ground.)
- Percent energy converted (KE/PE): The amount of the potential energy that transferred to kinetic energy and was not lost to heat/friction.
- Angle of release: The angle at which the projectile is released.