The Malaysian Chem-E-Car Competition is an annual competition organized by the Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM). The objective of the competition is to design and construct a car that is powered with a chemical energy source that will carry a certain load to a given distance and stop.
10th Malaysian Chem-e-car Competition
Dimension of Chem-E Car
All components of the car must fit into a shoebox (40 cm x 30 cm x 18 cm). The car may be disassembled to meet this requirement. If the judges are uncertain whether the car will fit inside the box when dissembled, they may request that the team demonstrate that they can do this.
The Ball
A golf ball with standard dimension, dimples and weight will be placed some distance away from the Starting Line. The organizer reserves the right to choose the brand and/or color of the golf ball to be used during competition.
The Challenges
Each team will be given TWO (2) opportunities or rounds to traverse the car to a specified distance (“Finish Line”) and hit a golf ball towards goal posts while carrying a certain load of water. The required load of water and distance of the Finish Line, which will vary in each round, will be announced prior to the start of the competition. The golf ball will be placed at the vertical center (at half of the track width or about 1.5 m from the top or bottom borders) but its horizontal position will be 1 m before the Finish Line, which will be drawn between 5 and 10 m ± 0.005 m (“range of Finish Line”) from the Starting Line. A Stopping Line will be placed 3 m after the Finish Line to allow ample distance for the car to come to a complete stop before it hits the obstacle and/or moving pass the obstacle towards the goal posts. If the car fails to stop, one of the team members must halt and remove the car from the track.
The load will be between 0 and 500 mL of water. A judge or a helper will measure the prescribed water for each team before and after each run. Teams may not add or remove any “load” (or other inert items) to adjust their vehicle weight during the runs. However, teams are allowed to adjust “fuel” or reactants used in the car’s chemical reaction.
The car will start with its front end just touching the designated Starting Line or anywhere within the launching pad. The aim of the competition is to have the car stops closest to the specified Finish Line, scores a “goal” and stays within bounds of each track. The Finish Line will be determined by the organizer within a range of 10 m from the Starting Line. An obstacle (a half-cylindrical shaped object, e.g., 2-inch PVC pipe or toilet paper roll, with length = 1 m and radius = 2.5 cm) will be placed 10 m away from the Stopping Line.
The Chem-E-Car competition field will consist of a poster board area and two tracks used for the car performance competition (FIGURE 1). The exact arrangement of the competition field will be dictated by the physical site of the host institution
