ChemE Car Competition 2007

Okay, you're going to have to pay attention now. This is Joey's ChemE car.

Here is another view. ChemE cars are for the ChemE car competition. Read on to get a sense of the rules.

The cars are models that start and stop based on a chemical reaction. Joey's reaction was the dissolution of magnesium ribbon in hydrochloric acid. These are the electrodes, and you can see the small acid tank on the top of the truck.

This is the inside of the truck with the body off. The car runs with a pair of stepper motors. The object of the competition is to design your car so that you can predict exactly how far it will go based upon the conditions you apply. In Joey's case, the strength of the acid determines how fast the magnesium is dissolved, and therefore, how far the car will go.

Here's a view of the coupling connecting the two stepper motors. Teams running ChemE cars are given a distance they are supposed to make their car travel just one hour before the competition starts. They have that time to determine the conditions they want to use in their runs.

This is the poster the team prepared for the competiton. The poster describes the car, the reaction, and gives a calibration curve explaining how the conditions affect the distance the car will travel. Although you see many names on the poster, Joey did nearly all of the work!

This is another team from Joey's school. There were about 15 teams from many high schools present at the competition.

Here is one of the cars from another team. The car must stay within the track or get a penalty. The team members in the blue shirts are at the starting line.

When the car stops, University of Tulsa chemical engineering students (who are the judges for the competition) measure the distance the car travelled, and subtract it from the desired distance.

Oops.... That's a penalty.

A cool looking little bus. Too bad it didn't work as good as it looked.

A teeny-tiny car! So cute! You can see Geof on the right looking on.

Not bad. But not good enough!

Another car.

Still not Joey's.

This car is getting ready to run. Team members are adding their chemicals to get the thing going.

This one is an earth mover. You can see the finish line, but this one kept going, and going, and going... Way too far! You can also see the acid spill from a previous car (near the finish line).

Another car.

This one is clear and has lots of wires. It was designed to run right along the rails.

Another team lining up.

Now it's Joey's team's turn. Line it up, then add the acid and let her go. Joey was really nervous.

The winning car! Their car stopped 9 inches from the finish line. Go to the movie page to watch the movie of Joey's car in the competition.

Announcing the winners.

The team with some other TSAS students holding their prize money. Great job!