Vehicle VersatilityA Vehicle that is Cost Efficient, Safe, and Durable

Group #8Yossef NaimMichel AlonziWichy Michel

Marlborough High School STEM ECHS

October 10, 2013

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Step 1: Identify the Problem

A vehicle would need to be created that is cost efficient and able to travel through three

different phases of travel. These phases of travel are water, land and air travel.

Step 2: Research the Problem

There are many different ways for mankind to travel. Water, Land, and Air are the main

types of things that humans commonly travel over. There are many different vehicles for

mankind to use to travel

Mankind has worked to create vehicles to travel across water that are safe, durable, and

able to withstand buoyancy. At the same time to protect passengers from collisions and from

sinking. Ships and boats are some of the oldest vehicles for transportation, being created

thousands of years ago. They are used for many different reasons; can be used for things like

the military, sports, leisure, and fishing. At first, boats were made out of logs that were tied

together. Later on in history, boats were being made out much larger logs that were hollowed

out. Eventually, boats/ships will be made out of steel and be powered by nuclear energy.

The first sailing boats were made in Ancient Egypt at around 4000 B.C. They were made

out of reeds and were mainly used on the Nile River. Later on (at around 2500 B.C.) the

Egyptians made their sailing boats so strong that they were able to sail across oceans. During

1450 A.D., three to four masted boats were used for several sentries across the world.

Christopher Columbus found the Americas on a four masted boat; he came all the way from

Spain to America on this type of boat. This proves how strong the four to three masted boats

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were because the material that they were made out of was wood. They sailed across oceans

and didn’t have problems. The purpose of the four to three masted boats was to serve as

military boats, for trade, and for exploration. At around 1910 A.D., the first coal/ oil powered

boats were used. They replaced steam powered boats that were invented during 1803 A.D.

(Sydenham, T., 2013)

Now, in the modern era, there are cruise ships and nuclear powered ships. The cruise

ships serve as a vacationing ship that service almost all of the passenger’s needs. They have

bedrooms, restaurants, and cinemas to entertain the passengers while they are on vacation.

Nuclear powered boats are used mainly for the military; they serve as submarines, aircraft

carriers, and destroyers to protect countries and to be in battle. (Sydenham, T., 2013)

Traveling by land has always been around from the first wheel, to horses, then wagons,

to engines, and then to electrical cars.

Traveling by land started during the Viking period. They travel by land for, for trade,

battle, socializing, feasts, and games. Because of the topography of the Norse lands, a water

route was usually preferred. But when that wasn't possible, people traveled overland. The

Viking used a wagon called “Oseburg wagon”. It was pull by a horse. Most people who use

them were rich people.

(http://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/manufacturing/text/land_travel.htm). (©2005-2013

William R. Short)

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Throughout time, travelling by land became easier because of horses and technology.

Travelling becomes easy in 1769 when the steam engine was created. Then in 1806 a new car

was invented with an internal combustion engine, and it ran on fuel gas, but in 1885 which led

to ubiquitous modern gasoline engine. Throughout the 20th century people or inventors have

tried to come up with electrical cars because of gas prices going up and because of global

warming the engines are causing problems because of the smocks.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_automobile)

The physic concept of vehicles on land is static friction between the wheels and the

ground. Another physic concept of vehicles is that the engine has to do with thermodynamics

and the process of the gas combusting and changing into mechanical energy. Also electricity is

included in how everything works in the car. For example the electricity in the vehicle helps to

check out how much gas you have and if everything is good with the vehicle. the way the

wheels and the ground interact with each other for the vehicle to move is that when the wheels

turn on the ground and gravity is pulling on it, it pushes the vehicle forward and the engine also

creates the energy need for the vehicle to move and the engine also creates electricity to make

the things that work with electricity, work.

(http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_physics_concepts_involved_in_a_car)

The safety limits of vehicles that are out there today is that there are airbags in them

and there’s seatbelt for the passengers and finally the thing that vehicles today have is if it gets

in a accident it sent out a signal to home base. The way that the airbag works is that when the

vehicle

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The specific information for safety limits is that the vehicle needs to be steel on the

outside because it’s going to take all the impact and it’s cheaper. The other information is that

the vehicle will be plastic in the inside because it is safer for the passengers and it won’t be a

much of a big deal if it gets in an accident. The other information is that the vehicle will have an

airbag for when it gets into accident that the passenger won’t be injured and it will keep the

passenger in place. The last important information for safety issues is the seat belt that the

passengers going to need so that when the vehicles impact something like a tree or another

vehicle the passenger won’t the passenger will not be thrown out of the vehicle and be injured.

In the beginning human being travel by land and by horses and wagons. Now Mankind

travel on land by cars and better yet electrical cars, also mankind have made the vehicles use

over lands more safe. Throughout history travelling by land had advances by a lot.

Man has always wanted to fly, but what if flying fails them and they start to fall. There

are many different types of parachutes today but they had changed from when they began.

From the Renaissance to now there have been many different designs to make it work. There

are many different safety and physics concepts on parachute. It all started with Leonardo da

Vinci and other Renaissance master minds.

Parachutes have been used since the Renaissance in the 1470s. The design was a cross

bar frame with a man holding on to in with a cone like canopy. There was rope attached to him

from the bar to keep him from falling. Another early parachute was one designed from

Veranzio in 1595 about one hundred years after the renaissance parachute. This parachute had

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a different design. This parachute has a more modern look to it. It has a square canopy with

rope attached to the operator. In 1485 Leonardo da Vinci designed a parachute with a

pyramidal canopy. In 2000 his design was tested and works successfully. (BBC News)

The more modern design of the parachute was invented in 18th century. The first public

recorded jump was made by Louis Sebastian Lenormand of France in 1783. Two years later in

1785 Lenormand created the Parachute with the two words para- the prefix ‘defense against”

and the word chute a French word which means “fall”. When combined it means defense

against a fall. Also in 1785 Jean-Pierre Blanchard demonstrated how to disembark from a hot air

balloon. His first demonstration was made with a dog as the passenger.

In 1793 he claimed that when his hot air balloon ruptured he used his parachute design to

safely descend to the ground. His parachute incident was not witnessed by other people.

(Parachute Other Flight)

In the late 1790s Andre Garnerin design a parachute that was folded to more compact

and is a design that looks more modern. He use silk instead of linen because it was stronger and

lighter weight. In 1797 he made the first jump using this parachute. Also he improved stability

of falling. He improved the stability by adding vents to the parachute. (Parachute Other Flight)

Charles Broadwick in 1906 demonstrated two advancements to the parachute that he

uses at fairs to jump out of hot air balloons. One advancement; was the folded parachute

design from the late 18th century. The other advancement was the static line which was

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attached to the hot air balloon and the parachute. When he jumped the line tightened and

pulled the parachute out of the pack. (Pack Man)

Five years later in 1911 a dummy was thrown from the Eiffel Tower. Then in 1912 Franz

Reichelt Jumped from the tower but ended up killing himself testing his wearable parachute.

Back in 1911 Grant Morton made the first jump from an airplane with a parachute. It was a

Wright Model B at Venice Beach California. The parachute he was wearing was the “throw-out”

type. This is where you hold it by your arms and jump out. Also Gleb Kotenlikov (a Russian

inventor) invented the first knapsack parachute. In 1912 he demonstrated the braking effects

by opening the parachute attached to the back seat but by doing so he invented the drogue

parachute.(Pack Man)

The first time of use for the military was during the First World War. The first use was

for artillery observers.

They were useful to them because when they saw enemy aircraft they could bail out without

being killed. This idea was first used by the German balloon crews. Some were used in fixed

wing aircraft. The parachute was positioned behind the pilot. Most of the time it didn’t work

when the aircraft was spinning, because the wires would get entangled when the pilot bailed

out. For the British and French they could have parachute because the cockpit was too small to

add it. In 1916 Solomon Lee Van Meter Jr created the revolutionary quick release ripcord.

(1914-1918 Parachutes)

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After World War 1 the United States army tried to make the parachutes safer. One way

was to wear a soft pack like Charles Broadwick. The final one was to use the ripcord from Meter

Jr. In Italy on 1927 they experimented with dropping troops behind enemy lines.

Today there are different parachutes for different activities. The cruciform parachute is

a type of parachute that the military used to land paratroops (now Special Forces) behind

enemy lines. The next parachute is a drag chute. A drag chute is a parachute that slows down

(usually) an aircraft then makes it stop. The last parachute is the ram air parachute. This

parachute has a lot of roles. Most of the time it is used by stunt divers and civilians use. Military

use it only for stunt shows. (The modern parachute)

Step 3: Develop Possible Solutions

Yossef’s solution was to have a Styrofoam cup as a base. Inside of the cup would be two

pieces of newspaper; inside of the newspaper would be the egg carton cell with the egg inside

of it. The parachute would be made out of a trash bag. The trash bag would be attached to the

cup by four pieces of string. The pieces of string would be a foot long; they will be attached in a

fashion so that the trash bag is upside down. The string would be tied on to the open part of

the bag. The water part of the vehicle is made up out of four pieces of wood that were six

inches. And two three inch pieces that went across the side of the vehicle.

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Michael’s designs: 1. the first design was a single cup filled which was attached to four

elastic bands with newspaper. Also in the cup was the egg carton which attached to the side of

the cup. On the bottom of the cup was a wooden raft that had four strips of wood to have even

sides. For the parachute there were four strings attached to the sides near the elastic bands.

The strings were attached to the corners of the trash bag. 2. The second design was similar. It

had the same cup design with the newspaper and elastic bands. It has a different bottom of the

square design. It doesn’t have wood in the middle but, it has a trash bag in the middle. This

would be the parachute of the design. There was also the same design of a parachute on it just

for added safety.

The solution that Wichy came up for the vehicle was that he would have a cup with

newspaper inside it to prevent strong impacts and the he would tie four strings to a trash bag

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to get it to the ground safely. The way the vehicle would travel is that the trash bag would help

it get down to the ground slowly without wrecking the vehicle. The Styrofoam cups would help

the vehicle float on water so the vehicle and the object wouldn’t sink. Lastly the newspaper

would help the object that would be inside the vehicle travel safely.

Step 4: Select the Best Possible Solution

The prototype that Yossef, Richy, and Michel decided to use was neither of the prototypes.

Instead, they decided to put them together and make one whole prototype that had something

of each prototype.

They took away Yossef’s and Michel’s part of the vehicle (the wooden part for water travel) to

put on a second cup attached to the base.

The rubber bands that were inside the

vehicle with the egg were taken out for

cost efficiency.

Step 5: Construct a Prototype

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MATERIALS BEFORE CHANGE

two rubber bands (4 dollars)

two pieces of pinewood (4 dollars)

two Styrofoam cups (7 dollars)

one foot of string (4 dollars)

one trash bag (10 dollars)

two sheets of newspaper (2 dollars)

TOTAL COST: 35 DOLLARS

MARERIALS AFTER CHANGE:

+ one glue stick (5 dollars)

+ one piece of duct tape (5 dollars)

+ one Styrofoam cup (7 dollars)

+ three feet of string (12 dollars)

OVERALL COST: 64 DOLLARS

Procedure

1. Take Styrofoam cup and fill the inside with one sheet of newspaper

2. Take other Styrofoam cup, fill it with other sheet of newspaper

3. Put first Styrofoam cup into second Styrofoam cup

4. Put egg carton cell with egg in it into first Styrofoam cup

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5. Take scissors and cut 4 small pieces of tape

6. Take the 4 pieces of string and tape them to the second cup (they have to be even all

around the cup

7. Take the trash bag and make 4 small hole in it that are even all around the trash bag

(this will be used as the parachute)

8. Tie the strings to the holes in the trash bag (one in each)

9. Take the duct tape and cut it into four even pieces

10. Take two of the pieces of the tape and tape it over the first cup (so the egg doesn’t fall

out)

Step 6: Test and Evaluate the Solution

WATER CHALLENGE

1. Fill a large sink up to about three fourths with water

2. Take your vehicle and put it into the water

3. Time it and see if it can stay afloat for 2 minutes

4. Record the time it stayed afloat and if it did sink

Results

Group 8’s vehicle stayed afloat for

two minutes.

However, it was ruled that the vehicle also sunk because it filled up with water

although it still stayed afloat.

AIR CHALLENGE

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1. Set up a 1.5 square meter target on the floor

2. Go up to the third floor above the target and drop the vehicle off

3. Record if the prototype got damaged, if the egg survived, how far away the vehicle was

from the center of the target, and how long it took for the vehicle to reach the target

RESULTS

Group 8’s vehicle stayed whole and the egg survived

The distance to the floor was 9.8 meters

It took 2.25 seconds for the vehicle to reach the target

When it landed, it was 0.37 meters away from the center of the target

LAND CHALLENGE

1. Set up a ramp that is 1.066 meters long and is 0 .362 meters elevated off the ground

2. Place the vehicle one foot away from the bottom of the ramp

3. Take a ten pound medicine ball and roll it down the ramp

4. Record if the vehicle survived the crash test and if the egg cracked

RESULTS

Group 8’s vehicle did not break

The group’s egg survived, it did not crack

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Step 7: Communicate the Solution

Group 8 will present on October 25th, 2013 at the science lecture hall to the STEM (early

college high school).

Step 8: Redesign

First off, Michel said that there should be much less spending of money. If the group had

saved more money, then there would be more room for improvement. Yossef thought that the

base of the vehicle should have been improved so it would be safer for the passenger. What

happened was the boat stayed afloat, but it was filled with water at the same time so the

passenger drowned. Yossef would improve the vehicle by putting a wooden base at the bottom.

This base would be made out pine wood. Wichy thought that there should be more insulation

on the outside of the vehicle so water did not get into it.

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References

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Retrieved from (www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/manufacturing/text/land_travel.htm

Buoyancy Formula | Buoyant Force Formula | Formulas@TutorVista.com. (2013). Retrieved September

15, 2013, from http://formulas.tutorvista.com/physics/buoyancy-formula.html

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Vinci's parachute flies. (n.d.). Retrieved from

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