Hello readers,

For this term we are doing physics, we are being graded on our final experiment of the term which is our Land Yachts, this is our final assessment for science, which are worth grades, enjoy as I talk you through this experiment.

Aim:

• A fast land yacht that can travel the furthest in a short amount of time.
• A fascinating design ready to attract human eyes.

Research: 

Here is an idea we considered doing.

Equipment:

• Plastic bag (I used a plastic apron)
• Scissor
• Clear tape
• Wooden base
• 2x Bamboo sticks
• Cardboard box
• Pens
• Colored paper
• Leaf blower (class use)

Hypothesis: 

My group has done the research, with having all the resources and knowledge about physics, I’m sure our plan will exceed.

Method:

Instruction:

1. Gather your equipment.
2. On your wood base, there should be a small hole on the smaller piece of wood mounted onto the wood base, put a bamboo stick into that hole.
3. Get a smaller bamboo stick and stick it on the one you recently just put in the hole, it should make a cross.
4. Get your plastic apron, cut the parts where laces are tied. Making it a square.
5. Fold the plastic bag until it makes a triangle.
6. Attach it onto the wooden stick.

Results and discussion:

Experiment: Unfortunately our plan failed, we became one of the last people to top in our class.

Calculations: 

How can I calculate distance, time and velocity? 

You can use a formula triangle for science, but by viewing this post I will simply explain it to you. Take notes!

To calculate speed (velocity) = distance divided by time.

To calculate time = divide the distance by speed.

To get the distance = multiply the speed by time.

The distance we managed to take in was only 3 meters in a span of 21.50 seconds, it was an epic fail due to the small distance in a really long amount of time. This was the exact opposite of what our goal was, we were meant to get the longest distance with a short amount of time.

What happened during the experiment?

During the experiment, it was going terribly slow, we were really disappointed because this didn’t take part in our expectations. The leaf blower was already on high speed and the person holding the leaf blower walked closer as it sailed further. But our Land Yacht suddenly stopped moving, and there it was already the end of the experiment.

Why is a big sail significant to this experiment?

You may be wondering, why a big sail is important to this experiment, this is what helps optimize the yachts performance. Which means it will only provide more speed to a point. A larger sail can make our land yacht go faster because it catches more wind, which generates more force that makes the land yacht go forward. When you increase the size of a sail, you are also increasing surface area which helps it capture more wind energy. This converts it to a forward momentum.

But also take notes, that simply adding a big sail onto your land yacht won’t exactly just increase its speed, measurements are very important to take notes on.

What kind of forces applied to your land yacht? 

Lift, drag and propulsion are the 3 main forces that act on a land yacht. But the one acting out the most is propulsion. Propulsion means to go “forward” the only reason our yacht propelled forward, was because of our sail and the leaf blower blowing on it.

Were the net forces balanced or balanced?

The net force acting out on our land yacht is definitely unbalanced, our wood base was much larger than our sail itself. We used a leaf blower to propel it forwards, it was not being dragged backwards of any sort.

What exactly are net forces? 

“Net force” is the sum of all forces that are acting on an object, we can measure this by using newtons, newtons is the unit of measurement used for net forces. Net force is important because it shows how much force there are acting on an object.

For this experiment, if you are wondering if wind is a net force, no it is not. Pressure gradient force, friction force and Coriolis force are the causes of the generation of the wind. Wind has kinetic energy and can apply force to objects.

For better understanding about forces, you can take a look at this link and read the kind of things it has to tell you about it.

The Forces of the Wind

Conclusions:

Is there anything that you think you might’ve needed to do to execute this plan? 

I noticed that most groups have created a much bigger sail compared to ours, with that their sail managed to take them further in direction, comparing my groups sail to others, ours was much smaller. We thought that our sail was already big enough but turns out it wasn’t enough to be blown further.

A comment I have for this is I honestly regret not sticking to our research plan, I feel like we could have executed this plan if we were to follow what was on the video.

Another thing is measurements, you don’t just put something out there for an experiment if it’s something you are not sure about, just like our groups presentation, we had thought that our sail was big enough until it was experiment day we saw the other groups presentation and the key difference I saw was the change of size on our sails.

Presentation: It was by far the least designed one in our class, there was no color or creativity going on. Compared to our class I would actually hear some of them fight over whose design was the best. Our group lacked the most effort especially with the design. We were super focused on our sail because it was the most important one in the experiment, after all it was the only missing one for this experiment to work out.

The aim is to make a wind racer and try to make it go the furthest. The equipment we used was two bamboo sticks, tape, trolley, plastic apron, and two skewers. We gathered our equipment and put the first bamboo stick in the hole that the trolley had. Next we taped two skewers on each side of the top of the bamboo stick to make the outline of the sail. We cut the plastic apron so it’s a square shape then taped it on the skewers. With the other bamboo stick we rolled it up at the end of the sail to make sure it holds the wind and makes it go further. Then we just put extra tape on the top of the sail and then the ends of the sail to make sure it says. The distance and time was 7.9m and 11 seconds. The calculated speed is 86.9 meters. The forces that were acting on the wind racer were Air resistance, Gravity, Thrust, and Support. The forces were unbalanced. During the wind racer race everyone had completely different results when it came to the distance. The reason as to why everyone’s distance and time was different was because no group had made the exact same wind racer as another group, they were all different. The net force means the sum of all of the forces acting on an object. Here is a list on the forces that had the most strength to the least amount of strength on the wind racer.  Air resistance, Thrust, Support, and then Gravity. Those forces had an effect on my groups wind racer because with Air resistance the wind was pushing against the sail to make it move. Thrust was used to make the wind racer go forward. Support helped make sure the wind racer didn’t fall over. Lastly Gravity, If there was no gravity the wind racer wouldn’t be on the ground.  My groups wind racer was successful because it didn’t fall, break or get ruined. We also got the furthest distance in the class. If I could improve our wind racer I’d put tape at the bottom so the wind racer was more sturdier. I’d also put the skewers more tightened together.