Work/Energy
The Gyrobus Rides Again
Date :
July 2016
Author :
Olivier Tardif-Paradis, Alexandre April and Mathieu Riopel.
College :
Cégep Garneau
Length :
3 hours
Related concept(s) :
Kinetic energy, rotational kinetic energy, potential gravitational energy, rotational power, instantaneous power, moment of force, dynamics.
 
In this activity, the students must design a Gyrobus-style electric bus. This is a bus with a flywheel, turning at high speed that stores energy in the form of rotational kinetic energy. After an introduction that stresses the social and technological importance of electrifying public transit and a brief history of the Gyrobus of the 1950s, the students will be asked to test the feasibility of running a Gyrobus-style electric bus in Québec City. Using the problem-based approach, the students will calculate parameters related to the bus’s energy independence on a given route, the generating capacity that must be deployed by the bus and the friction losses in the flywheel.