Impact Craters Lab

Today, Madeira, Rose and I did the Impact Craters Lab. We dropped a pingpong ball into flour from heights of 2ft., 3ft., 4ft., 5ft., and 5ft. 7in. We noticed that the higher, the height, the deeper and wider the craters became. I calculated the GPE for each height and it turned out that the bigger the GPE the deeper and wider the craters. This makes sense because just before the ball hits the flour, it has the same kinetic energy as it had potential energy. With more KE from a higher height, the flour will move when the energy is transfered into it.

i don't know quite how this will help us on mission to mars, but I'm sure it will. It was interesting to see the direct correlation between the heights and the impacts. even from such a small height of 5ft. you could tell the difference from the 2ft. experiment.

Body Power Lab

On Monday, Lilly, Rose and I did the body power lab. In it, we calculated our resting heart rate, our working heart rate and our maximum heart rate. If you are working harder, you are working at a higher percentage of your maximum heart rate. If you are working at a higher %MHR you burn more calories. Lily and Rose are much smaller than me. They both burned more calories than me because they had higher heartbeats because they are smaller. We didn't have enough time to do much of the Lab, because the calculations took a while (I had to do them all).
This will be useful because on our mission, we are going to need to keep in shape because we are going into a "zero gravity" environment. Theoretically, it would take no effort at all to lift anything so we have to keep in shape using other methods.

Motors Lab

Today Lena Kathryn and I did the motors Lab. We learned that when electricity flows through things, it creates a magnetic field. the particles are negatively charged (cause they have more electrons- hence electricity) When the wires are coiled tightly, there is a stronger magnetic field.
A magnet has a push side and a pull side. These are called poles. Since the electricity is moving through the wire, the needle moves when it is pushed/pulled through the magnetic field.

Heat Shield Lab

On tuesday, Amalia, Alice and I tried to make a shield for our
"rocket." It was a piece of wood with a bolt hot glued to the end. We tried to keep the glue from melting for as long as we could.

This is a picture of our Heat Shield.
We had to make sure that the heat was reflected and the hot air wasn't directly getting through to the glue, so we used tinfoil to reflect the hot air the tinfoil got really hot, so we made sure that the tinfoil only touched the mesh wire stuff in two places. (convection- hot air, conduction- when things touch.) Our bolt stayed on the wooden stick for 3 minutes and ten seconds.

Mini Culmination Prep- Day 6

On Tuesday, our group got together and talked about what worked well on Friday and what needed work. I wasn't there, so I was very interested to hear how it all went. After that, I helped maya a little bit with the robot. Then Lena and I tested out our notes on the lever and we perfected some of them. I think our group worked pretty well together although we didn't check in at the end, do I'm not sure how the rest of my group is feeling about the Mini Culmination

Mini Culmination Prep- Day 5

On Tuesday, Gillian and I played around with our rover the whole time. It would not go and comeback to the same place. We changed the battery, the motors, everything and we played with our program, but the rover was still being inconsistent. On tuesday in homework center, though, Bert and I problem solved. He suggested a tunnel and I decided it would be more logical to make a track/road thing. I used 5 rulers on each side and I taped them to the floor. this way, the rover can't go side to side, and it must come straight back to where it was before. It made me very happy!!

Mini Culmination Prep- Day 4

Today, Lena and I worked together again. Unfortunately, we found out that we have to launch 15 feet, not just 56 inches. This was not so great news for us. I was actually working with the rover again today, with Gillian, but Lena said that in order to make the pieces go 15 feet, we have to multiply our height measurement by 2 1/3 (2.33333) and our weight by 2. Apparently she tested this on a couple things and it worked. phew!! So, as for the rover. We got it to work perfectly!!!!!! we were so happy!! What we did, is because it turned on the way to the Mars base, we made one wheel go slower and one go faster on the way back and so it turned back and ended up in exactly the same place where it started. Yay!!!