REACTION CAR PROJECT

By Logan Olsen, Chase Huntley, Chuck Corbett

HCl (aq) + NaHCO3(aq) → NaCl (aq) + H2O(l) + CO2(g)

We tried HCl and baking soda at first, but after many inconsistent trials we switched to Vinegar and baking soda.

Pv=nRT

R=0.08205 L*atm/mol*K

T=293 K (room temp.)

V=0.7 L (volume of propel bottle)

_____(2.5 atm)(0.7 L)______ = 0.073 mol CO2(g)

(0.08205 L*atm/mol*K )(293 K)

0.073 mol CO2(g) 1 mol NaHCO3 84 g NaHCO3

1 mol CO2 1 mol NaHCO3

= 6.1152 g of baking soda

L 0.073 mol HCl

12.1 mol= .00603 L HCl

All of the mole ratios are one to one. To find the amount of liters needed of HCl we used the molarity of HCl and canceled the moles out. In our experiment we multiplied all of the values by two because we increased our pressure to 5.0 atm.

CH3COOH (aq) + H2O(l) + NaHCO3(aq) → H2O(l) + CO2(g) + NaCH3COO(aq)

The vinegar had five percent acidic acid- 5% (AA)

Pv=nRT

R=0.08205 L*atm/mol*K

T=293 K (room temp.)

V=0.7 L (volume of propel bottle)

______(5.0 atm)(0.7 L)______ = 0.146 mol CO2(g)

(0.08205 L*atm/mol*K )(293 K)

0.146 mol CO2(g) 1 mol NaHCO3 84 g NaHCO3

1 mol CO2 1 mol NaHCO3

= 12.264 g baking soda

0.146 mol AA

60 g AA 1 Cm3 AA 100 mL Vin

1 mol AA 1.05 g AA 5 mL AA

= 166.85 mL Vinegar

We made other calculations for various pressure values (4, 4.25, 4.5, and 4.75 atm). But after some trials we determined that having 5 atm was the correct amount to have for the car to travel a distance of 25 ft.

Car Design

Design #1: Our first design was poorly designed. Although it was rather simple, it didn’t uphold the ability to sustain the thrust of the pressure released

Design #2: Our second design was also unsuccessful. It also dealt with the same problems.

Design #3: Our final design is shown in the pictures posted above. It worked well for the amounts of vinegar and baking soda. Although we didn’t win the finals, the size of our car would result in the destruction of any other car to itty bitty pieces!!! Our car also is known to attack professors who wear shorts everyday.

Semi Final Graph Results

Run 1 Run 2 Run 3 Run 4 Run 5 Run 60

50

100

150

200

250

300

Distance for each Run

Distance (inches)

Reaction∆ Run #1

∆ Run #2

∆ Run #3

∆ Run #4

∆ Run #5

∆ Run #6

Distance Place

Cum Total

CumPlace

Comments

Vinegar / BS 25 out -185 s -80 s -185 s 180 s -30 s 5 110 4 Spew

Mr. Smooth! If you click on the link below you will see a

brief video clip of how nonchalant Dr. Skip moves out of the way to dodge this speeding car of fury.

reaction car.3GP

Conclusions Overall our car was consistent. In the semi-finals

we took advantage of the fact that we had unlimited runs in a two hour time period. We ran at least ten trials in the semis and had two strong enough scores to propel us into the finals. Our car ranged from about 10 to 20 feet.

In the finals we didn’t do as well we wanted but we finished in the middle of the pack.

We tried to nail Dr. Skip but he was far to elusive for our car.

Opening the valve was the biggest source of error in our experiment.

Final Thoughts

We could have changed our design to be smaller and easier to get started by the force created by the chemical reaction.

We only tried two chemical reactions. There are many more safe chemical reactions that we didn’t try that could have been more effective and create less spew.

We created the most spew out of anyone so we should most definitely get extra credit.