Into The Wild |
For this project, in Math/Physics we made three tools to help us on the camping trip that we would take. We made; an altoid can headlamp, a soda can stove, and a compass. In each one of devices we'd learn about a different subject; for the headlamp we learned about circuitry and electric currents, for the stoves we learned about heat transfer, and with the compass we learned about magnets and magnetic fields.
Headlamp
HOW IT WORKS: The headlamps will run on 1.5V batteries, we will be using 3 batteries for a total of 4.5 volts. There will be 3 LED’s that can hold up to 3 volts each, with a resistance of 18.75Ω. The total resistance in this circuit is of 75Ω. Between the battery and the 3 LEDs there will be a resistor and switch, the extra resistor will just make sure the headlamp won’t short circuit. In our headlamps there will be a switch that turns on the battery, each battery has positive and negative charge that activates, the negative charges go through the positive side then around the circuit then back through the negative side. When the charge gets to the bulb it causes heat that makes the LED light up. If the switch were to turn off the circuit would stop, because the switch just disconnects the wires so the electricity can no longer flow.
Soda Can Stove
Using the Soda Can Stoves, our goal was to be able to cook a dinner and a breakfast. The stoves ran on Denatured Alcohol, which is highly flammable. The stoves themselves were made out of an aluminum soda can, in which we made specific cuts and specific measurements to make a little stove capable of boiling water in 1 minute! My groups stoves work very well, we were able to accomplish our goal of cooking the dinner, but our breakfast was cut short.
Compass
Our compass is made of Acrylic Glass, which made our frame. On the acrylic we used a laser cutting machine to cut, etch, and shade the degree lines and directions, as well as designs if we wanted to. In the back panel of acrylic we inserted a needle to rest the compass needle onto, then we glued the rest of the panels together with a gap in the middle where the compass needle was free to move and obviously point north.
Overall Experience
My favorite part of this trip was just the all the free time we got to spend hiking, hanging out, playing games, or just messing around on the mountains. This trip also brought everyone closer together because before our two class were like strangers, unless you had a friend in that class. Now we all know each other and the persons personality. An important lesson I learned is how to tell who real friends are, in fun times everyone is a friend, but in hard or sad times, those real friends stick out.