We are recent owners of a Hybrid Mercury Mariner...Does anyone have an idea how we can we design a science fair project for my 13 year old son using the Hybrid? Remember the project must incorporate some type of measurable experiment.

Thanks,

Anthony in ALbuquerque

I guess something not expensive and can be done at school?

What about finding some giant balloons and fitting it on the tailpipe of a normal gas car of the same size, driving it around the school parking lot with timed stops at each corner and then doing the same with your hybrid? You can then easily measure the diameter of the balloon (or circumference with a tailor's waist measure) and show how much less emissions you get from the hybrid. Should be safe, not too much PSI in a balloon should it blow up (I'd wear safety goggles just in case). I don't know if it'll do anything to the car ( I would imagine it should be fine as I remember seeing a car jack that basically uses exhaust to fill a bag to lift the car high enough to change the tire ).

If it just involves just your hybrid I guess you can do the same experiment with different acceleration speeds and see how much more the balloon fills up the harder you accelerate.

Hopefully some of the engineers here will respond and give you and idea of how big a rubber balloon you'd need to get and if a valve might be necessary to prevent back flow.

You could compare the Escape V6 to the Mariner but I'm not sure how well the balloon idea would work out. Maybe compare fuel burnt over an identical course. This would require you to gain access to a similarly equipped V6 Escape. You would also need some means of measuring exactly how much gas was burnt in each run. Should be doable however.

If you do try the balloon experiment, try to get ahold of some 300 or 600 gram weather balloons. They get rather large before they break. Not sure where you would get them anymore except for in my garage and I'm not parting with the few I have left.....

There are *way* too many of these!

Coast-down tests use a fairly simple formula to calculate the amount of energy required to overcome the rolling reistance of the tires. This is not a test that is specific to hybrids, but knowing that component of the "energy budget" can be very useful if you also do some of the following. Coast-downs at 'normal' and 'very underinflated' tire pressures will also produce dramatic differences.

Assuming that the Mariner has a resettable display for mpg, you could find a flat (unbusy) road and see how you do at different speeds.

Do something similar on an uphill, using a topographic map to see how far you've climbed. Then from the weight of the vehicle and a bit of physics, calculate the energy required to climb. Compare that to the energy in the gasoline that was consumed, in excess of flat-road driving at the same sped.

If the driver/parent wants to compare 'normal' driving to using the typical mpg tips, then you could compare the expected mpg for a non-hybrid Mariner, to the hybrid driven normally, to it driven for max efficiency. Then express those as $ cost per year (for some assumed fuel price).

Or, just simply make graphs of fuel dollars per year for the hybrid vs regular Mariner.

Compare mpg runs with the car loaded to maximum capacity, to the same road & speed with a very light payload.

Mpg with air conditioning vs. windows open?

One could go on and on. So much of what is discussed in these groups is like science fair projects that never get made into posters...

DAS

Anthony, Some thoughts:

1. Find a "test course" of interstate, highway, and town road segments - maybe 10-15 miles total.

2. Drive the course at different speeds (use the cruise control for consistancy) for the different segments.

3. Keep a log of the miles, MPG, time, and temperature.

4. If possible, contrast a few of the tests with another "regular car".

5. Have a hypotheis - this is important for a science fair project. Test this hypothesis and state the results.

6. Provide some comparisons of what consumer reports, the EPA, and "your data" show the car can do. You can also have a display about emissions that hybrids produce (see http://fueleconomy.gov for useful info.

I live in cold western New York State. My '06 Honda Civic Hybrid is rated by Consumer Reports at 37mpg . The EPA says it will do 50 mpg . When I first got my car in January, I was getting low 40's (worst tank 40.0). With the warmer weather and break-in of the engine - it has gotten much better. My best tank was 63.2 mpg (I went 700.5 miles on that tank). My lifetime mpg is now 51.1 ! I do drive slow and coast and use the tips from this website. My car is called Blue Baby and is is the Honda Civic II Database. Feel free to use the data there. Good luck with the project.

Regards,

Don
Best tank 67.5 mpg (555.5 mi.)
Best trip 91.5 mpg (42.2 mi.)

First, I think the real question is what is your son's interest? It might make more sense to let him propose say three projects. Then based upon those proposals work out a budget and plan. The problem with the Mariner is he can't run the experiments directly.

Now a small, hybrid motorcycle/moped/scooter would be a good challenge. Even a hybrid bycycle assist would be something where he would have more 'ownership' of the project. Perhaps a project that uses a radio controlled vehicle. But really, let the kid come up with the proposals and to make it easier, let him know you'll help with the budget.

Bob Wilson

Operation Iraqi Oil Freedom:

Automatic, stock, project car.

My other 1500 cc car:

Automatic, stock, backup car.
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One thing to try would be to bubble the car's exhaust through a container of water, then test the water's acidity (as a very rough approximation of the relationship of the car's exhaust to acid rain). I'm not sure if this would work very well though: a properly functioning catalytic converter, etc., might not leave enough pollutants in the exhaust to change the pH enough to detect. Might be worth a shot, though. [Edit: on second thought, the carbon dioxide -> carbonic acid might be enough to detect if you're patient enough]

The balloon idea sounds neat, but I'm not sure you'd have much time to work with it. If my back-of-the-envelope calculation is right, then the balloon would be the size of the car in about a minute. That on its own might be a neat demonstration, though. [I'm assuming all the air/fuel from the engine is forced out the tailpipe with no losses along the way, and that a ~2L engine at 1000 RPM essentially takes 2L of air/fuel per stroke, turns it into a larger volume of exhaust (expansion from both heat and an increase in the number of molecules), and then puts it all out the tailpipe, 1000 times per minute, for something like several thousand L/min].

You could show the mpg-vs-speed curve for a few cars, and point out how sizing an engine for average power needs can improve that curve, and also what effect speeding can have on mileage. Also, the same curves with some stops in them to show the other hybrid advantage (acceleration assist).

Or, if psych is more your strong suit, get a pool of volunteers to track their fuel economy for a while. First, get them to do it without finding the actual MPG - just give you odometer readings and gas pumped (best to find some people with a consistent, longish daily commute who don't mind small fillups every few days). Then, give them some fuel economy tips and ask them to improve their driving. For one group, give them feedback on mileage as they go; the other group, continue to take it down without letting them know what their mileage is. See if the feedback helps them improve more vs. just being told what should help.

This same experiment can be run in a single day as a trial course with one car that has a mileage display and several drivers -- just show/hide the mileage display as needed for your drivers/subjects. Have them drive it once as they "normally" would, then two more times after getting coaching. If you're quick, you might find a large parking lot empty on labour day, and a bunch of friends with nothing to do...