The Green Revolution

By: Eddie Reinfranck, Carlos

Santos, Nathan Selinger, Brian

Strohl

Transportation

Rethinking

Biographies

I’m Carlos Santos. I‘m 12 years old. I like to play soccer and tackle football. I enjoy playing guitar. My favorite class is science. It’s the first time I’m in TechXplore. I’m apposed to all democrats except Barrack Obama and John Edwards. I used to be a Republican but fate has changed and I’m now (no not a Democrat) a Liberal. My favorite food is sushi and Edwardo’s pizza. If I could meet any person in the world it would be Steve Jobs to ask him where he comes up with his ideas.

Carlos was a researcher mainly in

charge of motors

Biographies Hello, my name is Eddie Reinfranck and I am

12 years old. I love school and enjoy learning new things. Although I like all of the subjects, I think I would have to say science, particularly physics, genetics, astronomy, and chemistry are some of my favorites. I like to play soccer and volleyball the most but also enjoy running, biking and (although I stink at it) tennis. I play the cello and piano, but also enjoy to sing and listen to music, especially Disco, Motown, and sometimes Classical. Some of my favorite hobbies are to read, play sports, play instruments, go to plays and operas, listen to music, watch politics and news, design and build things, make stuffed animals and watch my favorite sci-fi shows, STARGATE SG-1 and ATLANTIS ! I go to Old Orchard Junior High School. I have an 8 year old annoying little sister and a hilarious dog named Gypsy. And that’s me!

Eddie was the designer

Biographies My name is Brian. I am 11 years old. I go to

OOJH. I like playing baseball and I have an older sister named Jessica who is 21 years old. I also like playing video games. This is my first time doing TechXplore. I love the Chicago White Sox. I recently read Stormbreaker and Point Blank. My favorite food is pizza. I want to be a game tester or a police officer when I grow up. I like listening to rap and rock & roll. I like drinking coke, even though I’m not always allowed to drink it. My favorite song is Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day. My favorite movie is The Simpsons Movie. My favorite TV show is Drake & Josh. That is a little bit about me.

Brian was a researcher mainly in charge of matrials

Biographies I’m Nathan Selinger. I’m an 11 year old 6th

grader from Old Orchard Junior High School in Skokie, Illinois. I like baseball, football, and science. It’s an odd combination, but there you go. My favorite TV show is The Office, and I like the band Green Day. I love doing science projects, and I’m doing TechXplore for the first time. My favorite things to do in my free time are jog and listen to sports radio. When I grow up, I want to be a sports TV or radio personality. My favorite food is pizza when I’ve just eaten pizza, and hot dogs when I’ve just eaten hot dogs. My favorite invention of all time is the TiVo box (which I use to record The Office, Sportscenter, and NOVA) and if I could eat lunch with one person it would be the international champion hot dog eater Joey Chestnut (just to see how fast he really eats). Ta ta for now!

Nathan designed the power sources for the car and did

the PowerPoint

The ProblemTransportation. It’s everywhere. Whether it’s taking the Red Line to the

Cubs game or driving to school, we need it to get anywhere, anytime, anyhow. But transportation needs to get better. Most forms of transportation today are expensive, and bad for the environment. But technology exists to make the ways we get around cleaner, faster, and cheaper. We just need to take the initiative and piece together a solution to our transportation problem.

You may think that fuel efficiency has improved over the years. But the original Model T had better fuel economy than some modern day Fords. That shows how much fuel modern day transportation burns up. Burning fuel creates greenhouse gases like Co2, which cause global warming. Those gases are more present in our atmosphere than they’ve been for 740,000 years. And with gas prices on the rise, the need for efficiency at the pump will only increase. Car companies need to stop worrying about voice commands and fancy sound systems and start trying to make cleaner cars, because this problem will only get worse.

Believe it or not, the Ford Model T on the left gets more MPGs than the modern day Ford

Excursion on the right.

Problem ContinuedCars not only are dirty, they also use a lot of materials that are not recyclable. Cars take lots of material to build, including 810 kilograms of steel, 170 kilograms of iron, 110 kilograms of plastics, 100 kilograms of aluminum, and 60 kilograms of rubber. We not only need cars that are fuel efficient, we also need cars that are efficient to make as well. The next time you drive somewhere, think about gas guzzling, expensive machines that rule the streets today. And think about how much better the ways we get around could be. If we could make inexpensive, clean ways to get around, not only could we stop big problems like global warming (Which is more of an increase in the last century than it’s been in 12,000 years) but you’d have a little more money to spend when you get wherever you’re going.

Cars are a big cause of pollution in cities like this

one

Our solution: Introduction With global warming becoming a very serious problem that

threatens our very survival and transportation being the number one cause of air pollution, our group saw fit to steer clear of the average car’s gasoline powered engine. We sought to revolutionize the auto industry’s idea of what a personalized car should be like. The thing we don’t realize is most of the gas used in a car is converted to electrical energy that makes the car go, but instead of using gas to make the car go we choose to use reusable and zero emission power sources. We choose to use three batteries. The first for actually getting our car’s wheels to turn and getting our car to work, the second for a back up if disaster strikes, and finally the third and last battery for all of the cool tech you might want and need in your car. You’re probably wondering what gives this car electricity that is non polluting.

Our Solution: Power Sources

To the environment? Well, our car‘s main power source is something we take for granted every day: The rays of the sun. It’s known that enough energy hits the earth from the sun every day to power this world for a year! The challenge is how to find some thing that absorbent, but a new company called NanoSolar is beginning to make solar panels unlike any before. Its panels are more like tin foil, costs one third less that the ones today, and is 100 to 1000 percent more efficient! Our car also uses wind power to go. When any object moves through a fluid it creates drag, resistance, and/or friction that slows the object down, but our group designed slights in the car so it would trap air and this speeding trapped air would cause the turbines placed there to turn and would create electricity. Lastly, if you’re ever in need, you can always plug it in for some extra juice for the car.

The new solar panels we plan to use

Our Solution: Safety We also have many different rubber bumpers that are placed in

the spots that will help you, the consumer, stay safe. Another feature put in place to help you stay safe and have a fun, less bumpy ride is that we have placed many, very strong, shock absorbers to help the car feel less of a jolt. We have made the front seats of the car vibrate if in crashing range or other problem that may occur in driving. We have designed a two piece car with a device that will separate if the car feels enough weight/force so instead of breaking the whole car you would simply separate, let the back up wheels take you to a stop, after the car has fully stopped you can assess the situation and either rejoin the parts or make the necessary call for help. We also have a two-piece car so you can choose different sizes. (Front: sports car, sedan, sedan/ mini van, minivan Back: small, medium, large, extra large,) so you can customize your car to fit your own needs. Our exterior is sleek, clean, safe and customizable.

Our Solution: The Interior Our car might be clean and efficient, but without a flashy interior these cars

wouldn’t be worth much in the blossoming auto industry and because we are trying to revolutionize the world’s idea of a car, we felt we had to evolve what we think a personal vehicle should be like on the inside. We wanted our car to be as smart about its space as any other feature. We tried to give our car a spacious look that made you want to sit in it. All seats except the driver’s chair in the front can turn 360 degrees. We have tabletops in the front and back, so as you’re on the go you can still be productive in your studies or job. Under this hanging tabletop is a section where you could fit all your tech from gaming systems like the Wii to your DVD player to anything else. You have the capability to plug-in anything to a projector screen to play on or simply enlarge. We want the inside to look appealing so there are a variety of bright colors to choose from. The floor is carpet so you get a comfortable feeling. In the front there is a small screen in the middle so you can get directions and maps fast. I forgot to mention that anything in the plug-in can be recharged from the battery if you so please, (there is a switch). Depending on the size of the back section you have the power to put the kids in the back. There are speakers and microphones connecting the two so you can still talk with them, you can also turn this feature off. All the chairs, etc., can fold into the floor for open space (the driver seat must be up for the car to run). All our features that make our interior cool and fun are so that you the consumer can have the ride of your life, every time.

A single walled carbon nanotube in sheet form is only one atom thick. This sheet can be rolled into a seamless cylinder whose diameter is only a nanometer thick. nanotubes show incredible strength far greater than steel and are also superb electrical conductors. They are made up of almost exclusively carbon atoms. They have a unique ability to change/bend shape and/or repair themselves based on the temperature they are in. Part of the strength of this material is based on the strength of its bonds, the nature of these bonds also allow for unlimited length and at high pressure they can also link. nanotubes clearly have a high potential in an abundance of fields and are at the height of nanotechnology. I believe this (or Carbon fiber) may be magic material for our car.

Our solution: Materials

A magnified carbon nanotube

Carbon fiber (Graphite fiber) is the highest compression

strength of all composites (reinforcing materials). Since carbon fiber is stronger, tougher and lighter than steel (carbon fiber is 5x stronger + 2x stiffer than steel), it would allow our car to go much faster, more efficiently. Carbon fiber is in the form of tiny small strands of mostly carbon atoms. One thin tube of fiber has a diameter of 5-8 micrometers and is almost exclusively carbon atoms. The atomic structure is of a regular hexagon pattern. Carbon heated in the range of 1500-2000 °C (carbonization) shows the greatest tensile strength (820,000 psi or 5,650 MPa or 5,650 N/mm²), when carbon fiber is heated from 2500 to 3000 °C (graphitizing), it exhibits a higher modulus of elasticity (77,000,000 psi or 531 GPa or 531 kN/mm²). This great material is used to create (none other than) high impact, competitive race cars (NASCAR) based on its strength to weight ratio. Either Carbon fiber or Carbon Nanotubes would be the smartest material choice for our Green Revolution car.

Our solution: Materials continued

Our solution: Engines and Motors

• Mini wind turbine: the mini wind turbine is located at the front of the car right behind the grill of the car. The wind turbine starts to generate power when the car starts to move. As it turns, the wind energy that is created adds up and all the energy goes to the battery.

• Solar panels: the solar panels are located at the top of the car where they can absorb the most sunlight. The solar panels have a layer that absorbs the sun’s rays, then there is another layer that filters out the energy and other particles and only uses the energy, and finally there is a layer that converts the energy into electricity. Then that electricity is sent to the battery pack by conducting wires.

• Battery pack: the battery pack holds the energy that the mini wind turbine, solar panels and plug in. Once the car starts it sends the energy to the converter .the battery is a previously invented battery the lithium ion battery. We choose the lithium battery because it holds the most energy and because it holds more energy we can use less of it.

• Engine: once the electricity from the generator enters the engine electricity goes into the piston chamber then it reacts with the piston to create a spark that travels into the motor.

• Motor: once the motor gets the spark that came from the engine, it creates a reaction that makes the axle turn and the axle turns the wheels.

Our solution (drawings and sketches)

Our solution (drawings and sketches)

About our mentorTerry Cheng was appointed to the council on

Asian pacific Minnesotans. He has been serving as the chair for the Plymouth advisory committee on transit for 4 years. He was recognized numerous times as a diversity champion for his passion and energy with mentor programs. As a member of the wells Fargo’s Minnesota diversity council he tirelessly contributes his vision and action on diversity education, professional growth and mentoring. Terry is an operating system in wells Fargo’s banks technology information group. Terry was born and raised in Taiwan and has been in the United States for 20 years Terry was recruited by Wells Fargo in 1999. He and his family moved from Seattle Washington to Plymouth Washington in 2000.

Conversations with our mentor

Hello, Mr. Cheng. Thanks so much for taking us on! The problem we chosewas transportation being very bad for the environment. Our group membersare:

Hi, I'm Nathan Selinger. I like to play and watch sports. I also likedoing things related to science and technology. It's an odd combination.

Hello my name is Eddie Reinfrnack and I love to read, learn anythingnew, debate, and play sports. My favorite subject in school is science.I love to design, build  anything!

My name is Carlos and I like to playguitar and eat pizza.

My name is Brian and I like baseball and allsports.

We've attached a beginning PowerPoint which has lots of what we're doinginside. Our original thinking was that we'd make our "Green Car" out ofaluminum, but we're considering using carbon nanotubes instead.

Thanks again for being our mentor! I hope you can give us feedback onour PowerPoint and tell us a little about yourself!

Sincerely,

Nathan, Eddie, Brian, and Carlos

What we learned from TechXplore

My group, Rethinking Transportation, learned so much from this wonderful chance to apply concepts we only understood on the text to the modern day issues that will affect tomorrow. We now understand how difficult it is to work with partners who feel as passionate about a problem as you do yet both of you see different ways to achieve it. We saw how high emotions could run and the frustration that went with those emotions. In school you so often only take notes and do your homework, but this allowed us to really learn by our own hand, which I know at least for me really made me understand how hard it is to teach yourself. Each of our brains had vivid designs that could flow smoothly, but when it came time to share we learned how hard it is to send your ideas to a brain that might work differently. We felt serious pressure and never lost sight that the deadline was not far away and learned both how to use our time and how to find what we needed. We found out how easy it was to argue and how harsh it could get. We learned that only one thing is constant in this sort of thing and that was to trust ourselves. It wasn’t uncommon for one or two people to forget an assessment. Thus we learned how impossible it was to plan since things were always changing. My group was very different and people often “locked horns”, but at the end I believe we all felt that if given the chance we would pick the same people all over again, and also I fell we all began to respect each other. We also got to feel as if we were on the front line researching and designing something that could change the world in a good way. Lastly the most amazing thing we got out of this great program was the pride that came with being able to say I (co-) designed that car and it came out of my mind (and others)!

Bibliographyhttp://www.kqed.org/quest/http://www.popularmechanics.com/http://www.popsci.com/popsci/ http://www.carbodydesign.com/http://www.wikipedia.org/