Solar Panel Car
By Kayla Faulk
How Does It Work
I looked on http://www.carsdirect.com/green-cars/how-does-a-solar-electric-car-work and according to them a solar power car basically works on the batteries or if the car is designed to have a motor it works both ways.They state that solar cars use energy that comes from the sun. When it comes to solar cars they have specially designed batteries that serve as converters. Since the sun is not always available the car has to store the energy,thats where Silicon-based photovoltaic cells come in.Silicon-based photovoltaic cells are the most common solar collectors and storage spaces. accumulated sunlight moves electrons around triggering an electrical current or energy that eventually runs the car.
Why I Chose This Source
I choose it because i thought it was cool that a car did not need any gas it just used the sun to charge your car battery and your car would run off the battery.I also thought it was cool because you don't have to charge it it charges itself by storing the energy into a special battery.
Pros Of A Solar Power Car
- It is renewable
- You have enough energy to fuel your car
- A clean energy source
- No energy costs
- Most available Energy source
Cons Of A Solar Power Car
- Consumes energy faster than replenishing it
- Made of hazardous materials
- High cost per car
- Slower than a regular car
- Any impact to the car can ruin the solar panels
Side View
Why I Designed This Car
I designed a sports car because everyone likes a cool car that they can show off.I started off wanting to put solar panels where the grills would be on the front and back and also on the top,but I couldn't put the solar panels on the front and back because solar panels are very easily broken so if you were to try going backwards but go forward and something is in front of you,you would hit it and break the solar panels. I decided to put one solar panel on top because it shouldn't break easily if it is on top of the car. My decision about the solar panels is that if you have enough power there would be a button on the inside to make it stop running power into the solar panels so you do not overcharge your battery.The way this button works is kind of like a sunroof but you would have a piece of metal that would slide out on top and under your solar panels to keep your solar panels from catching the sun when you press the button.
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Me and my family always go to the mountains for Christmas break. Before we headed to the mountains my mom and dad bought a solar panel car.On the way to the mountains we went form 0MPH-64MPH in about 6 seconds.When we got to the mountains I had kept track of how far we traveled and the time. We traveled 900 miles in about 14 hours.What an awesome car!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRC2gkMWjfc&list=UUJOqU0jBsiksFAloS1Vk9AA
Calculating speed
The formula i will be using is Speed=Distance/Time so plugging into my formula would look like this Speed=900/14 and 900/14=64.28 so i rounded up and my answer was 64 so my speed was 64MPH!!
Calculating Acceleration
When finding my Acceleration my formula should be V2-V1/Time=ACCELERATION. So my formula should look something like this 64-0/6=10.66. Which means my acceleration was 10.66MPH.
Axis Label
My Y-Axis is showing my distance and My X-Axis is showing my Time