The BIG DAY!!!
Alright, the real reaso nwe came here - THE INTERNATIONAL CHEM E CAR COMPETITION!!!!!
Well, the day started off nice and early - we were prepared to be there as early as possible so that we could make the batteries - as they take an hour to make.
We were told the venue will be open fomr 8.30, so we gort there by 8.15. Being 15 mins early rather than late is no mean feat for me!
Alas, we waited and waited and they finally openend the place at 9!! I skipped breakfast to be there on time!
So, after a late start, we prepared all the batteries and were very please when the distance was revealed to be 16.5 metres - nice and short.
The comp was held on carpet, but a lot of teams got a shock and complained that they weren't told. We'd all assumed it would be on tiles as that was what they had last time.
So, a lot of the cars didn't move. we were chuffed as our car moved quite well (as we have known for over a week that it would be on carpet).
Fearing an angry backlash from the unruly mob, the judges decided to change the venue to concrete- we had lost our advantage!!!!!
Never to fear, we quickly modified the car to run on concrete - but then DISASTER!!!
Ten mins before the comp, our car did not turn on!!! This was very weird as we had 8 batteries (we'd always only had 6) so there should have been plenty of power!! As we hithered and dithered Cangie found the problem - one wire was connected incorrectly and hence the baterries were actully working against each other - effectively cancelling them out!
After a quick wire change we were ready - heaving sighs of relief. Our car was drawn as the first - so we set down our car and turned it on. The car started slowly........and moved a bit faster.....and faster......over the small hump on the course....and down the slope speeding away faster than any Evo and finally went.........................................................................................................
OUT OF BOUNDS!
"Disqualified!" yelled the commentator!
Luckily, out of the 11 teams, 4 others went out of bounds and were disqualified. The other Monash team could not get their car to start.
Alright, we still had one more run. We quickly changed some tests, and decided we had too much power. So we removed a battery and changed the plating time (which controls distance).
This time the car started slowly, picked up speed and then.........stopped short of the finish line by 6 metres!
Overall, we came 7th out of the 11 teams - a wee bit disappointing but we had fun! I hope Monash does not make us pay back the cost of the trip.
For the record, the comp was won by the Uni of Tulsa, from Oklahoma, USA. The runners up were from AUT in Iran and had the best car... it revved up the engines, then released oxygen vapour and finally sped off with a zoom. They stopped just 38 cm away from the finish line, but were bbeaten by the fuel cell pwered car from Tulsa. This was a really good car - slow and steady - but successful!
Anyway, the weather here is unchracteristically hot - 26 C today! This is very warm for Glasgow - and most places are built for the winter and so store the heat. Most don't have AC as they don't expect this weather - supposedly it's meant to rain every day and this is one of their heat waves.
I'm absolutely amazed by how long the sun is out here - it feels like 10 am when it is actually 10.30 pm!!! Even at 11.30 pm there's still a wee bit of light left. (Like my Scottish slang???). Supposedly the sun rises at 5 am - though I've not been awake to notice!
Gotta run, I'm at a library and my time is nearly up!
Well, the day started off nice and early - we were prepared to be there as early as possible so that we could make the batteries - as they take an hour to make.
We were told the venue will be open fomr 8.30, so we gort there by 8.15. Being 15 mins early rather than late is no mean feat for me!
Alas, we waited and waited and they finally openend the place at 9!! I skipped breakfast to be there on time!
So, after a late start, we prepared all the batteries and were very please when the distance was revealed to be 16.5 metres - nice and short.
The comp was held on carpet, but a lot of teams got a shock and complained that they weren't told. We'd all assumed it would be on tiles as that was what they had last time.
So, a lot of the cars didn't move. we were chuffed as our car moved quite well (as we have known for over a week that it would be on carpet).
Fearing an angry backlash from the unruly mob, the judges decided to change the venue to concrete- we had lost our advantage!!!!!
Never to fear, we quickly modified the car to run on concrete - but then DISASTER!!!
Ten mins before the comp, our car did not turn on!!! This was very weird as we had 8 batteries (we'd always only had 6) so there should have been plenty of power!! As we hithered and dithered Cangie found the problem - one wire was connected incorrectly and hence the baterries were actully working against each other - effectively cancelling them out!
After a quick wire change we were ready - heaving sighs of relief. Our car was drawn as the first - so we set down our car and turned it on. The car started slowly........and moved a bit faster.....and faster......over the small hump on the course....and down the slope speeding away faster than any Evo and finally went.........................................................................................................
OUT OF BOUNDS!
"Disqualified!" yelled the commentator!
Luckily, out of the 11 teams, 4 others went out of bounds and were disqualified. The other Monash team could not get their car to start.
Alright, we still had one more run. We quickly changed some tests, and decided we had too much power. So we removed a battery and changed the plating time (which controls distance).
This time the car started slowly, picked up speed and then.........stopped short of the finish line by 6 metres!
Overall, we came 7th out of the 11 teams - a wee bit disappointing but we had fun! I hope Monash does not make us pay back the cost of the trip.
For the record, the comp was won by the Uni of Tulsa, from Oklahoma, USA. The runners up were from AUT in Iran and had the best car... it revved up the engines, then released oxygen vapour and finally sped off with a zoom. They stopped just 38 cm away from the finish line, but were bbeaten by the fuel cell pwered car from Tulsa. This was a really good car - slow and steady - but successful!
Anyway, the weather here is unchracteristically hot - 26 C today! This is very warm for Glasgow - and most places are built for the winter and so store the heat. Most don't have AC as they don't expect this weather - supposedly it's meant to rain every day and this is one of their heat waves.
I'm absolutely amazed by how long the sun is out here - it feels like 10 am when it is actually 10.30 pm!!! Even at 11.30 pm there's still a wee bit of light left. (Like my Scottish slang???). Supposedly the sun rises at 5 am - though I've not been awake to notice!
Gotta run, I'm at a library and my time is nearly up!
posted by Sandeep at 10:28 AM
1 Comments:
You don't know how releived I was when Cangie found the mistake as it saved us a HUGE EMBARRASEMENT. Worse still - imagine Martin Rhodes' embarrasement if BOTH Monash teams could not get their cars to start!!!!
Anyway, hope that the ski trip was good - I'd like to hear more about it when I get back!
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