The goal of this project was to create a machine that would convert one form of energy into another. Our groups first idea was to make pancakes at the end, so we worked backwards from there. We wanted to make them over a campfire so we came up with three options to start that fire. We made a lemon battery and a salt water battery, but they both ran into the problem of the heat getting absorbed by the battery. We then used a chemical reaction to create the fire and it worked perfectly. We made a video and presentation as seen below:
CONTENT:
Creation of Fire:
Oxidation - An object chemically combining with oxygen, often resulting in fire
Specific Heat Capacity - The rate at which a material heats up and cools down
Combustion Reaction - A chemical reaction causing oxidation (fire) and often times smoke
Batteries and Their Parts:
Electrolyte - a liquid or gel that contains ions and can be decomposed by electrolysis
Anode - The positively charged end of a battery where the circuit starts
Cathode - The negatively charged end of a battery where the circuit "ends"
Short Circuit - A closed circuit with a battery and little to no resistance in the circuit. This causes rapid electricity flow and loss, resulting in heat
Materials and Properties:
Brine - A salt water solution, also an electrolyte
Reactivity - How likely a material is to react
Solute - A solid or gas dissolved into a liquid
Solvent - A liquid into which a solute dissolves
Solution - The result of a solute dissolving into a solvent
Oxidation - An object chemically combining with oxygen, often resulting in fire
Specific Heat Capacity - The rate at which a material heats up and cools down
Combustion Reaction - A chemical reaction causing oxidation (fire) and often times smoke
Batteries and Their Parts:
Electrolyte - a liquid or gel that contains ions and can be decomposed by electrolysis
Anode - The positively charged end of a battery where the circuit starts
Cathode - The negatively charged end of a battery where the circuit "ends"
Short Circuit - A closed circuit with a battery and little to no resistance in the circuit. This causes rapid electricity flow and loss, resulting in heat
Materials and Properties:
Brine - A salt water solution, also an electrolyte
Reactivity - How likely a material is to react
Solute - A solid or gas dissolved into a liquid
Solvent - A liquid into which a solute dissolves
Solution - The result of a solute dissolving into a solvent
Reflection:
This project was extremely fun and has honestly been one of my favorite projects this year. It allowed us total creative freedom and let us have fun figuring out how to make our contraptions work. One great thing that we did in this project was definitely our video. It showed our research and our project off very well and it greatly improved our project. One big downfall we had was that we struggled with making the final pancakes edible, defeating the purpose of our project and ruining our lunch. In the future we are thinking to use coals to minimize ash and to guarantee that there is no chemical crossover into the pancake by keeping the fires separate. We also failed in our battery experiments and wasted a lot of time all because we had not realize that since the liquids had such low heat capacity, we couldn't get enough to start a fire. I really liked our groups teamwork and communication and would love to work with either or both of them again in the future. We had really good organization and time management that there was never a rush to do anything and everything went smoothly.