EF 151 Final Team Project: MacGyver’s Water

Team MacGyver Members Jason Koenn Dawo Rogers Stanley McGrady John Wallen

Project Overview and Purpose  In this project, we made a device that will pour a glass of water into another cup using four distinct steps that shows the use of conservation of momentum, gravitational potential, and kinetic energy.

Items Used Items Estimated Cost Toy Car and Track 9$ Four Boxes 4*(1$ Each)= 4$ Tape2$ String.50$ Two Erasers 2*(.50$ Each)= 1$ Beer Bong 5$ Wood2$ Estimated Cost 23.50$

Energy Conservations  Our project consists of three types of conservations: momentum, gravitational potential, and kinetic.  In step one we have gravitational potential energy transferring into kinetic energy.  In step two, the kinetic energy increases and the potential energy decreases as the car travels down the track.  In step three, the kinetic energy is transferred to the bottle through conservation of momentum.  In step four, the potential energy of the water in the bottle is transferred to kinetic energy as it travels down the tube into the cup.

Step One  Two erasers are attached to a string which is able to swing from a pendulum. The erasers are held from a certain distance from the top of the box. It is then let go and all of it’s momentum is transferred to the toy car sitting on the top of the track.

Step Two  Once the car is hit by the erasers, it accelerates as it goes down the track due to the slope, thus all of its stored potential energy is then transferred to kinetic energy as it reaches the bottom of the track.

Step Three  At the bottom of the track, there is an open bottle filled halfway with water that is waiting to be hit by the car. The car will strike the top of the bottle, which will then make it tip over and dump it’s water into the beer bong secured to the edged of the box.

Step Four  In this final step, the water will travel down the tube into an empty cup sitting on the floor.

Conclusion  We found our project successful for transferring water from a bottle to a cup.  Our three different conservations were momentum, gravitational potential, and kinetic energy.