CBEE 101 Reaction Powered Car

Sam Callen, Michael Hill, David Varin12/8/09

The TeamSam Callen (On Left)David Varin (On Right)Michael Hill (MIA)

Reaction Chemistry

-Volume Occupied by Air is the total volume of the bottle minus the volume predicted to be taken up by the reactants. Water was added to the reactants to meet predicted volume.

3( ) ( ) 2( ) 2( ) 2 ( )

3 32 3

2 3

32

2

2

(Volume Occupied by Air)

0.08205 293

1mol CaCO 100.09 CaCO mol CO Grams of CaCO Used

1 mol CO 1 mol CaCO

1mol CaCO mol CO

1 mol CO

s aq aq g lCaCO VHCl CaCl CO H O

pv pn

l atmrt kmol k

gn

n

33

3

22

3 2

100.09 CaCO 1 ml ml of CaCO Used

1 mol CaCO 2.71

2 mol HCl 1000 ml HCl mol CO ml of HCl Used

1 mol CO 12.1 mol HCl

700 ml Total Volume Volume Occupied by Air ml of HCL Volume of CaCO ml of H O

g

g

n

Added

Car Design – Reaction VesselOriginal design of

reaction vesselOriginal design was

to add reactants to either bottle, seal the vessel, mix the reactants, and release the pressure from the nozzle

Car Design ContinuedAfter redesigning our

reaction vessel to function with a propel bottle, we designed a car that had removable axels to try different wheel configurations; this was the test for a rear facing triangle

Focused on frame support rather than the weight of the frame

Testing ResultsTable of Trials

Side By Side Comparison

Run

ATM

V (ml

)

Distance

1 4.5 650 -137

2 5.5 650 300 s

3 5.2 650 -91

4 5.2 670 -60

5 5.2 670 -143ATM

V (ml x

100

)

Dista

nce

Off(in

x 1

00)

0

2

4

6

8

Run 1Run 2Run 3Run 4Run 5

ConclusionsDue to lack of experimental trials, the car we used in

competition was not as calibrated as we had hoped, and given more time, we believe we could have preformed better.

Because we were attempting to calibrate our car on the fly, our car was inconsistent between trials as there were too many variables to be taken into account.

If we were to redesign our reaction vessel, we would use hose to connect the two bottles to the t-joint, as opposed to inserting the t-joint into the bottles to create a tighter seal, as this was the weak point in our original stuff.