Balloon Car
An assignment I chose is the balloon car assignment. The reason I chose to do this assignment is because I needed to use Fusion 360 to design the car and I wanted to use Fusion 360 and the 3d printers since I came to the school in September. I am proud of it because I thought that I made it very lightweight and a car that could go far. When I tested it it went pretty far but not as far as I would have liked. One challenge in this assignment is that the first time I 3d printed this car it failed and did not print successfully so I had to tweak the design a little to make it print better on the printer. Other than that the project went pretty smoothly and worked well.
March Mammal Madness Project
An assignment I did in drafting was the March Mammal Madness Project. In this assignment, we needed to research different animals and see which one would win in a fight. For example, the 2 animals that I had to choose were the Puma and the star-nosed mole. We needed to gather information on each of the animals, an example of this is the habitat, diet, attack patterns, behavior, size, and weight. Once you have all this information the animals will have an imaginary battle and see which one will win. We are currently working on filling in the brackets and making our predictions on who will win. We need to take into account which climate they will be fighting in, how stealthy/small the other animal is, etc. We determine which climate the animals will be fighting in based on which animals have the higher number. For example, the puma is number 2 but the star-nosed mole is number 17. They would be fighting in the puma’s natural habitat. I chose this assignment because I think it is pretty cool and is filled with information and research about the natural world. This is an exciting assignment that I greatly enjoy.
Passion Project 2024
How Thrust is Generated Through Fire
Why I chose this project?
I chose this project because I wanted to show and teach others how fire can be used to make thrust, which pushes something forward. This means the object can move without needing anything to push it from the outside. I want to help people understand how fire and fast moving air can make things move, kind of like how a rocket or jet engine works. My project is a fun and easy way to learn how this kind of movement happens.
Design Evolutions
The 2 images below are my 2 Design Evolutions, the first design (Left image) was difficult to make, was not reliable and needed improvements, the second version (right image) was much more stable easier to work with and was overall better.
Project Progress
The progress on my project went really well. I used my time wisely during class and was able to finish everything on time. I put a lot of effort into making sure it worked and in the end, I had a working model that successfully created thrust through fire.
Mistakes/Setbacks
One mistake I ran into/did was using 3D-printed parts. I didn’t expect how much heat my model would generate, and the plastic parts started to melt and became unreliable. I had to replace them with metal parts so they could handle the heat properly and not melt. After that, everything worked much better. Besides that, I didn’t run into too many other issues. Overall, the building process went well. Below is my final design of my model that is heatproof and works reliably for me. I do not have many images of my progress while I was building my model.
End Result and Reflection
In the end, my project worked! The final model was able to generate thrust using fire, just like I wanted and planned. Lots of people were interested in my project and how it worked during my presentation.
Something I Learned
One big thing I learned from this project is how important it is to use the right materials. Heat can melt parts and accounting for something like that is very important. I also learned how to troubleshoot and adapt when things don’t go perfectly the first time.
What I would improve if I did it again
If I did this project again, I would try to make a larger version or test different fuel sources to get even more thrust and a bigger flame. Overall, I’m proud of how it turned out, and I’m glad I chose this project.
