Test Day

This image shows us setting the trebuchet.

 On our test day our trebuchet performed much better than we had ever thought. On average it shot 40 meters and it was very accurate. We did not expect our trebuchet to do so well due to the fact that we had built it the night before. We had some difficulty with the pouch. The pouch kept pulling tight, not allowing the ball to fly out. We also had some difficulty keeping our trebuchet from falling over after the ball was thrown. To avoid this problem we put weights on the front to stop it from falling backwards.

This is an image of Shelby and my trebutchet. We used a shot sling because we found it the most efficient.

This is just another view of our trebuchet.

  In our paper trebuchet challenge our trebuchet did very well. Our trebuchet was constructed quickly and correctly. Shelby did a very good job making our pouch.We learned that the more weights that you added and the closer you got to a 45 degree angle, the farther the projectile would go. In the end it took 35 washers and our angle was very close to 45 degrees. On average our paper trebuchet shot 6.5 meters and was very accurate. Due to the fact that we tested them inside, we did not have to deal with wind resistance. The only environmental factors that we had to deal with were gravity. 

Egg Drop Challenge-Competition day

On competition day our container failed earning us 0 points. Our container was a ball and had a diameter of 14cm and weighed 112.1g. We dropped our container from 5m.our container fell the fastest, it fell at 0.81 seconds.
I find that the restriction that was the most limiting was the fact that we couldn't use a parachute. I believe using a parachute would have made the challenge much easier. the most effective part of our containers design was that it could impact at any angle, there wasn't a certain way that it had to be dropped. Our lest effective part was how we cut the hole. We had to shove the egg into the ball therefore we weren't positive if it was fully in the center.
If we wanted to adapt our container to safely contain two eggs we would have to use a larger ball so you would have more cushion.Also if we had a larger ball we could cut two different holes for the eggs.
The image above is me taking our cracked egg out of our container. The video below is of our egg drop.

Physics grade 12. Feb.28

On test day our containers performance was bad at first. Our egg cracked the first time we tried it. We started off using a small cardboard box filled with cotton balls. We tried packing the box even more with cotton balls but it failed again. We decided that we needed to come up with a different idea so we found a foam dodge ball. The dodge ball was light and had a lot of cushion. We cut a hole in the ball and put the egg in the middle. We tested it twice and it worked both times. Both times we dropped it from the top of the stairs.

Mousetrap Vehicle Recommendations

Things that Went Well
On our trap using Meccano went well. it made it easy to attach parts and take them off. Our distance was actually pretty good we just have to make sure we set the car off at the right angle to get our maximum distance. Our car wasn't that slow either.
Recommendations
Make sure to use light weigh materials and tires that have traction. It would be a good idea to have two sets of wheels. A larger set for distance and a smaller set for speed. Try to avoid friction on the axle. When setting to the trap make sure the string to wound up tight and is a strong string so it doesn't break. Make sure to test your car out many times to know exactly how it works. If it turns to the left start it off pointing a bit to the right.

Race Reflection and Competition Day

Competition

Our mousetrap cars average distance was 10 meters which was the distance you had to have to get full marks. Our vehicle weighed 462.3g which made it the heaviest car in the competition. Our car placed 5th in the distance trial. In the drag race we placed 6th with a time of 5.57 seconds.

Post Race Reflection

If were to modify my car design i would get a new record for the wheel because it was warped so it caused the wheel to wobble and turn the car.

If i were to build an all new car I would use lighter material and find wheels that were straight.

If we wanted to tweak our car to make it better we could have made a way for the string to stay tight and found a way to straighten out our wheels.

Waiting to be told to set off the trap. Watching our car race down the hallway

Mousetrap Car

Our mousetrap work very well when i first tried it at home but of course when it comes to test day our car was not working the same way. As you can see our vehicle is in need of some help. We need to make some changes in order to make our car go farther. Maybe getting it to go farther than 2 meters would be a good idea.
Our car was very effective at home but on test day it didn't really go far at all without a little push( pushing not allowed on test day). Our car didn't exactly go straight either but I think the reason for that was because the wheels were rubbing in spots.