Today I traded in my usual Friday routine of kicking back with a grilled cheese and a side of V8 for an afternoon of metric conversions and Lego Mindstorm. Our mission today: power up the Lego Mindstorm and track his short bursts of travel across the table. First we gave it a test and after he shot across the table, I became a proud parent as he made it nearly a foot before stopping. With the test over, it was time to get down to business and through using a computer program we were able to control the power at which Ralph (our Mindstorm looked like a Ralph) would accelerate. Our first three tries were at a power level of 75 on each wheel. We would first track his distance using a ruler and then compare the results to what the computer generated. Through converting our numbers into meters (thank god for Google) we were able to calculate an error rate. We conducted our trials three times at 75 power, three at 50, and three at 25. Our error rate ranged from 17% to 25% which I thought was not too shabby for novice Mindstormers. Looking back on the process, I found it worth while but would hope that by the end of the semester we can get Ralph to fetch us some drinks or at least do the Cat Daddy.
| Circumfrence (M) | Power | Human Measured Distance (M) | Wheel Turns (M) | Distance(M) | Velocity(M) | Error % |
| 0.17 | 75 | 0.304 | 1.42 | 0.2417 | 0.2417 | 20% |
| 0.17 | 75 | 0.2921 | 1.4722 | 0.24602 | 0.24602 | 16% |
| 0.17 | 75 | 0.28575 | 1.433 | 0.2436 | 0.2436 | 15% |
| 0.17 | 50 | 0.1905 | 0.9388 | 0.15961 | 0.159641 | 16% |
| 0.17 | 50 | 0.1905 | 0.95 | 0.1615 | 0.1615 | 15% |
| 0.17 | 50 | 0.1905 | 0.922 | 0.1567 | 0.1567 | 18% |
| 0.17 | 25 | 0.08255 | 0.366 | 0.0623 | 0.0623 | 25% |
| 0.17 | 25 | 0.0889 | 0.433 | 0.0736 | 0.0736 | 17% |
| 0.17 | 25 | 0.08382 | 0.3805 | 0.0649 | 0.0649 | 23% |