Team+Mockingjay

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**Our car is named Proud Mary because it has a Big Wheel that k****eeps on toynin' (turning)!**

3-24-11 So far we have built a triangular-shaped car with a singular, large back wheel, hence the vehicle name Proud Mary. We used rubber bands for traction on the large wooden wheel in the back, which is the drive wheel. In the front we used a metal axle and we had initially used plastic pony beads as the bearing. We just switched to a plastic straw bearing for some reason....

4-12-11 The plastic straw bearing is working very well. the wheel are not sliding around from side to side as much. We have done a few tests and the vehicle is still curving slightly to one side. We replaced the straw bearing with straw smaller in diameter, and also straightened out the wheel. George dropped the car while attempting to high-five himself, so I hope it still works.

4-14-11 Right now we are trying to develop a plan for a solar charging station, and we are having difficulty coming to consensus. Jenna proposed that we have a system similar to a beach chair, with notches that a pole can fit into. Anna proposed that we use a tennis ball with Velcro attaching it to the solar panel. We have found faults in both plans, so we will continue to brainstorm.

4-21-11 We attached some foam poster board to the bottom of the car so that we would not have to rip up the bottom of the car every time we repositioned our axle. Now, we can just tape the bearing to the foam board, and every time we need to reposition it we can peel off the tape easily off the t-core's plastic surface.

1-3-11 We are currently building a second car with some light wood that we found in the shop. The new car will have the same triangular design that Proud Mary has, but we will try to make several improvements. First of all we will try to make the back wheel CENTERED so we won't have to spend days trying to get the car to roll straight. We will try to acquire a second motor clip for Proud Mary II. Then we can move the motor from one car to another.

Test Results: 3-24-11 We have done done several test runs down the hall. At first, Proud Mary was always veering to one side, and we discovered that the motor was weighing down one side, so the car would always veer to that side. When we glued the battery pack on, we meticulously positioned it so that the weight would be equally distributed.

4-11-11 We tested Proud Mary today, and it could go about 10 feet without running into a wall. We timed it over the course of ten feet, and the car went 3.22 f/s.

4-12-11 Proud Mary is curving to the left. We are currently adjusting the wheels to make it go straighter. We have glued down the wheels, and reinforced the front of the car with a paint stick. We balanced out the wheels and now the car can go about 50 feet without running into a wall. This is a great improvement from last run, when it could only go about 10. The car is going considerably slower in the past few days than it was when we were testing it early on. This could be the fault of the batteries, gear, wheel, or something else. We just did another test run, and Proud Mary went very, very fast. So fast, it fact, that a wheel broke off when it collided with a wall. Proud Mary is curving to the right again, and the big wheel in the back is moving from side to side too much. 4-21-11 We have done several test runs, and Proud Mary has mostly been veering to one side. The one time when she did go straight for a long time, she ran into the wall and the axle broke off. Next time, we will use more tape so that the axle is more stable, and we will trace a line along the axle on the t-core so we know how the axle was aligned.