4 plastic lids from soft-drink or water bottles.

hand drill or power drill rectangle of thick corrugated cardboard (15 cm x 10 cm) straight straw bendable straw 2 bamboo skewers balloon rubber band masking tape scissors plasticine coloured pencils and decorations

Please note: an adult should operate the hand drill or power drill. The plastic lids will be the wheels of the car. Use a hand drill or power drill to make a hole in each lid, just big enough for a bamboo skewer to fit through. Cut the straight straw in half. Tape one half-straw at one end of the cardboard, across the shorter side and tape the other half-straw at the other end. Thread a skewer through each half-straw to make the car axles. Thread the wheels (plastic lids) onto the skewers and use plasticine to hold the wheels in place. Cut the long part of the bendable straw to the same length as the short part. Blow up the balloon and let it down a couple of times to stretch the rubber. Place the neck of the balloon over one end of the bendable straw and fasten it using the rubber band. Turn the cardboard over and tape the bendable straw along the length of the car so the balloon rests on the cardboard. The straw should poke over the other end.

Inflate the balloon by blowing through the straw. Pinch the balloon so the air doesnt come out. Place the car on a clear, smooth surface and let the balloon go.

Newtons third law of motion can be observed in sports. For example, in swimming the swimmers stroke pushes on the water and the water pushes back on the swimmer propelling him/her forward. In kicking a football, the foot pushes on the ball and the ball pushes on the foot in the opposite direction with the same amount of force. After you put the car on a surface and let go of the straw, the air moves out of the straw in one direction and the car moves in the opposite direction. Sir Isaac Newton developed three laws of motion in 1665 when he was only 23 years old. These laws revolutionised how science explained movement by describing how the forces acting on an object are responsible for the objects motion. Your balloon powered car is a good example of Newtons third law of motion. It states, To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This means that if object A pushes on object B, object B pushes back on object A with the same amount of force. In the case of the balloon-powered car, the air is pushed out of the straw in one direction and the car is pushed in the opposite direction. Newtons third law of motion is perhaps the most widely recognised and incorrectly used of the three laws. Despite occurring all around us, Newtons third law can be difficult to comprehend. For example, if you lean against a wall it is easy to imagine that your shoulder is pushing, or exerting a force, on it. It is less easy to realise that not only is the wall pushing on your shoulder, but that it is pushing with an equal amount of force.

Use your scissors to cut six sections of plastic drinking straw that are 2 inches long each and slide three onto each of your rounded chopsticks. Use a thick, strong straw that is not easily flattened by slight pressure.

2 Apply a large glob of hot glue to the ends of the chopsticks and attach them to the center of two compact discs. Line up your two compact disc wheels on

each chopstick to be parallel to one another. Set these aside to cool and dry completely while you construct the rest of your car.

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Coding And Marking Coding and marking specialists Machines and consumables www.Overprint.co.uk 3 Blow up your large round balloon and let the air out a few times to test it and stretch it out a little. Balloons that are rated for use with helium are more durable than the novelty varieties.

4 Insert a 3-inch long cut section of straw halfway into the exhaust tip of your balloon and secure it with tape to create an airtight seal. Air loss will translate to power loss in your balloon car, so wrap your balloon's nozzle well to prevent leakage.

5 Cradle your balloon in a plastic carry-out salad container lid and tape the nozzle in place at the edge you choose to be the rear of your car. Be sure that enough of the balloon's nozzle hags off the back so it is accessible to fill with air.

6 Hot glue the outsides of the three drinking straw segments that were slid onto the chopsticks to the underside of your salad container lid. One should be about an inch back from the front and the other an inch forward from the back. Any glue that gets inside the straw will prevent the chopstick from spinning and keep your car from rolling.

Sponsored Links Shell V-Power Nitro+Shell.com.ph/v-powernitro+ Designed to improve performance the moment it hits your engine! Forklift & Loader Scalewww.scale-sales.com Special SALE price $795.00 800 448-5681 mfg. direct purchase Find Adhesive Consultantwww.PLSI.us Adhesive Formulation Consultant. Extensive Experience. Call Us Now! Forex Affiliate Programwww.HYaffiliates.com Earn 500$ Perday Online Support Highest Commission Join Now! Tips & Warnings Test your balloon car on a flat surface and make adjustments to the balloon's exhaust nozzle to find the best position to generate maximum speed from your balloon. Add a couple of stickers or spray paint your chassis and wheels for a customized look to your balloon car. Experiment with your own designs and materials to learn what is most effective and create a fleet of balloon-powered cars.

Caroline A. Wade Search this site Navigation Home 8th Grade 9th Grade 10th Grade 11th Grade 12th Grade

Goals and Dreams Sitemap 8th Grade > Science > Unit 2: Motion and Forces > Balloon Car Project The balloon powered car project: For this assignment we dealt with a car powered only by the force of a balloon pushing the air out to make the car move. We show all the steps of how to make the car, along with graphs and data of the results of our car. We learned the different ways that forward and backward forces affect the performance of the car.

Car Name: Purple Turkey Brandon Lazar Caroline Wade Science, Period 2

Car Project Packet

Sections in this packet are: Pre-Building Brainstorm Materials and Procedures Challenges and Technical Difficulties Data Collection/Testing Procedures Results and Graphs Experiment Pictures Conclusion

Pre-Building Brainstorm

Testable Questions: Which Balloon-Powered Car Design will travel 5 meters the fastest? The lightest, most powerful car design will travel the distance the fastest.

2. Which Balloon-Powered Car Design will travel the furthest? The car design that will travel the furthest is the car that is well built, light, powerful and travels a straight line.

Independent Variable:

Design of the car.

Dependent Variables:

The distance the car travels.

The time it takes the car to travel 5 meters.

Controlled Variables:

The balloon size and elasticity, the wind, the ground it is rolling on.

Things that can increase backwards force

Solutions to these problems

Air resistance against the front of the car. Make the car hollow, or make it a slow incline from the front of car the middle or back.

Friction between the axle and the body of the car.

Use straws to simply carry the wheels and attach the straws to the car while leaving the axle to role freely.

How to keep the balloon open for air to travel through.

We are going to use a turkey baster that has a wide enough end to keep the balloon open.

Things that can increase forward force

Explain how your design will increase forward force

Put one balloon inside the other balloon

With two balloons deflating at the same time, it will cause more air to be pushed out quickly, increasing forward force.

A light car

By making our car light we wont have to use as much power to propel the car forward.

Aerodynamic

We decided to make our car hollow so that the air would pass right through without putting to much drag on the car.

List all the Materials you will need to bring in to build your car: 1. Paper towel roll 2. Turkey baster 3. Push pop bottoms 4. Tape 5. Scissors 6. Glue 7. Straws 8. Balloon

What part of car will this material be used for: 1. Body 2. Air channel-er 3. Wheels and axles 4. Connecting 5. Cutting 6. Attaching 7. Axle cover 8. Power source

Drawing of your groups Car: Top View:

The body is made of cardboard. The wheels are plastic. The arrow/air channeler is a made of plastic. The circle on top is the balloon, made of rubber.

Side View:

The body is made of cardboard. The wheels are plastic. The arrow/air channeler is a made of plastic. The circle on top is the balloon, made of rubber.

Materials and Procedures

Materials Used to Make Your Car (Also include the tools you used)

1. Paper towel roll 2. Turkey baster 3. Push pop bottoms 4. Tape 5. Scissors 6. Straws 7. Balloon Why did you choose to use this material?

1. It is a hollow and light body 2. It allows us to blow up the balloon and direct air flow 3. They are perfectly round and the circular parts can easily pull on and off of the axle 4. It can hold things in place and it does not need to dry

5. It can be used to reshape items 6. They can be easily remodeled and is bigger then the axles 7. It is the only source of power allowed in this experiment. Procedures Written directions to make the car

Diagrams Draw, describe, and/or insert a picture of what you did in that step (label if necessary)

STEP 1 We cut a hole in the paper towel roll for the turkey baster, and slid it in.

STEP 2 After that we poked four holes in the paper towel roll, two on each side, with each parallel to another.

STEP 3 We put the straws through the holes and taped them in place, then put the wheel axles inside the straws; attaching the wheels.

STEP 4 Then we attached the balloon around the fat end of the turkey baster, blew it up, then let it roll.

Challenges and Technical Difficulties

Describe the problem. You may also use drawings.

Explain how you solved this problem.

Problem #1: The car was not going straight and was going off the track.

We drilled new holes and worked with the position of the straws and axles to make it perform better.

Problem #2: We could not keep the balloon open for the air to flow out efficiently.

We attached the end of the balloon to the fat end of the turkey baster to keep the balloon open.

Problem #3: There was too much friction between the axles and the body of the car.

To solve this we added straws to attach to the car and the axles of the wheels went through the straws, so that they move freely but still stay on.

Results and Graphs

Experiment Data Table: Your cars data Time (seconds) Timer 1 data Timer 2 data Master Timer data Average Time Distance (meters) 0 0 0 0 0 1.56 1.18

1.37 1 1.49 1.56

1.53 2 2.48 2.10

2.29

3 3.3 2.96

3.13 4 4.22 4.99

4.61 5

Distance vs. Time Data Table Distance vs. Time Graph Time (Seconds) Position (meters) 0 1.37 1 1.53 2 2.29 3 3.13 0

4 4.61 5

Distance Range Is the object speeding up, slowing down, or moving at a constant speed? Is the slope increasing, decreasing or constant? 0 - 1 meter Speeding Increasing 1 - 2 meters Speeding Increasing 2 - 3 meters Slowing Decreasing 3 - 4 meters Constant Constant 4 - 5 meters Slowing

Decreasing

Finding the Speed of your car:

At meter 0:

D = 0m

T = 0s 0/0=0

S = 0m/s From 0 - 1 meter: D = 1m

T = 1.37s 1/1.37= 0.73

S = 0.73m/s From 1 - 2 meters: D = 1m

T = 0.16s

1/.16= 6.25

S = 6.25m/s From 2 - 3 meters: D = 1m

T = 0.76s 1/.76= 1.32

S = 1.32m/s From 3 - 4 meters: D = 1m

T = 0.84s 1/.84= 1.19

S = 1.19m/s From 4 - 5 meters D = 1m

T = 1.48s 1/1.48= .68

S = 0.68m/s

Speed vs. Time Data Table Speed vs. Time Graph Time

(seconds)

Speed

(m/s)

0 1.37 0.73 1.53 6.25 2.29 1.32 3.13 1.19 4.61 0.68

Distance Range

Accelerating, Decelerating, or No Acceleration Positive, Negative, or Zero Slope? 0 - 1 meter Accelerating Positive 1 - 2 meters Accelerating Positive 2 - 3 meters Decelerating Negative 3 - 4 meters Decelerating Negative 4 - 5 meters Decelerating ^Negative

Average Speed of the Car from 0 to 5 Meters: Total Distance = 5m

Total Time = 4.61s

Average Speed = 1.08m/s

Class Data Table: Group

Car Name

Time to 5 Meters

(sec)

Average Speed (m/s)

Total Distance (m)

1AB

The BJ Mobile 7.79

.64

5 meters

1CD

The Sailboat

n/a

.40

3 meters

2AB

Sling Shot

1.765

2.83

5 meters

2CD

Swiss Roller

10.40

.48

5 meters

3AB

Da FireCracka

n/a

.54

4 meters

3CD

Wind'em Up

n/a

.49

3 meters

4AB

Speed Racer

3.23

1.55

5 meters

4CD

The Bottle Mobile

5.13

.98

5 meters

5AB

Hayden Mobile 007-2

n/a

.54

4 meters

5CD

TGM 21

5.01

1.00

5 meters

6AB

The Green Mobile

5.17

.97

5 meters

6CD

NASA Nodule (D=11.9m)

3.15

1.59

5 meters

7AB

The JS

8.39

.60

5 meters

7CD

The Blimp

7.16

.70

5 meters

8AB

Whipped Cream

6.39

.78

5 meters

8CD

Purple Turkey

4.61

1.08

5 meters

9AB

Alina

n/a

.30

1 meter

Average

Class Average

5.68

0.91

4.12 meters

Experiment Pictures

Experiment Set Up / Track

Top View

Side View

Front View

Construction View

45 degree View

Balloon Inflated View

Conclusion Our car did slightly better then average overall. It went 0.88 meters farther then the average distance. The speed was also 0.17 faster than the average car. So altogether our car, the Purple Turkey, was above average. If we were given the chance to do this project again, we would make some changes so the car would perform even better. Some important changes would be to have less friction and backwards force; because if there is no friction between the car and ground as well as the axels and the car body it will run smoother and faster. Plus by changing the dynamics of the body and the weight of the car

the friction and backwards force will be lessoned. Another way to make our car go faster is if we made the wheels perfectly in line with each other then the car would roll straight. For in our experiment, on the track the car swerved to the right, going off track then hitting something to come back on, which slowed down the speed of the car. Once the changes to the wheels and dynamics of the car are made we would have better forward force causing the car to go faster and improving our results. Some advice for Mr. Pourhamidi's class next year would be to focus a lot on the wheels, because even though it seems like it will be really simple, there is a whole lot that can go wrong with them. Anyone who does this project should make sure that the balloons are pointed down if they are meant to blow the air, and that they put thie axle in a straw and attach the straw. Also, make sure that the holes for the axles are parallel.

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The rocket car is an excellent demonstration of Newtons Third Law of Motion. Air is compressed inside a balloon that is expanded. When the nozzle is released, the balloon returns to its original un-inflated size by propelling the air out of its nozzle. The action force of the expelling air produces a reaction force that pushes the racer in the opposite direction. The racers wheels reduce friction with the floor, and the racer takes off down the race course.

Although the rocket racer seems simple, there are many challenging complexities in its operation, and having students grapple with these can help them better appreciate the design work of engineers. The engineering design of the racer is very important. In principle (Newtons second law of motion), the less mass the car has, the greater its acceleration will be. Generally, heavy rocket racers do less well than lighter racers. However, very small racers are limited by other factors. Vehicles with short wheel bases tend to circle or partially lift off the floor. Balance becomes a problem. The mass of the balloon may cause the car to tilt nose down to the floor, causing a poor start. Many

designs are possible, including wide, narrow, and I-beam shaped bodies and three, four, or even six wheels.

Because of individual variations in the student cars, they will travel different distances and often in unplanned directions. Through modifications, the students can correct for undesirable results and improve their cars efficiency. They will have to review the trade-offs of their design. For example, an extralong body may provide a straighter path, but the car might travel a shorter distance as a result.

Read more: How to Construct a Balloon Car | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_5566231_construct-ballooncar.html#ixzz1z0884UMI