Project: Balloon Car Contest
Unit 2: Motion & Forces
Cameron Auva’a
Patrick Johnson
Period # 5
Experiment Question
What balloon car design will go the farthest and/or fastest?
Rules
There are 2 ways to use your balloons:
Grading
Distance: Speed
20 pts | 5+ m |
15 pts | 3 - 4.9 m |
10 pts | 1 - 2.9 m |
5 pts | 0 - 0.9 m |
20 pts | 1.0+ m/s |
15 pts | 0.7 - 0.99 m/s |
10 pts | 0.4 - 0.69 m/s |
5 pts | 0.0 - 0.39 m/s |
Balloon Car Contest by NASA Engineers
Summarize The Rule | Describe why this rule is necessary |
2. Can only be powered by 2 officially provided balloons | to keep the contest fair, keep balloons the same, 1 ind. var. |
| So that everyones move pretty much the same. |
4.Can not use premae wheels or axis’ | So that no one has an unfair advantage in speed |
| So that everyone go’s the same distance |
6. | |
Research 1: NASA Cars
Insert a picture of your favorite NASA balloon car. ft | Mass = 10 grams�Distance Traveled = 28.75 ft�Running Time = 20.19 sec�Calculate Speed = 1.4 feet per second |
What materials did they use? Balloon Barbeque Sticks Rubber Band | Its width is 9 inches Its height is 6.75 inches Its called the Boopmobile |
Research 2: NASA Cars
Insert a picture of your favorite NASA balloon car. | Mass = 48�Distance Traveled = 13.17 feet �Running Time = 13.35 seconds�Calculate Speed = 0.98 feet per second |
What materials did they use? 2 lids Straw Balloon | It’s 10.25 inches in length It’s 2.25 inches in width It’s 4.25 inches tall |
Materials Brainstorm
Car Component | Materials needed | How will you build it? |
Wheels | 4 - 8 bottle caps | Center the bottle caps and attach to axle |
Axles | 2 Kabob stick | Attach to car body |
Balloon connection | Straw | Attach to the car body through the whole in the bottle |
Car Body | Bottle | Drink all water then use as body |
Misc (cutting, taping, etc.) | Tape | N/A |
| | |
Experiment Design 1
Experiment Questions:
The design that will allow the car to move the fastest would be the lightest weight possible. You would also have to have the perfect wheels not too heavy but moves smoothly.
The best design to have the car travel the farthest would to balance the weight and the balloon. Also the axle must be straightened perfectly.
Experiment Design 2
Independent Variable | The amount of air in the balloon |
Dependent Variable | Which amount of air will make the balloon travel the farthest. |
Control Variables | Wind Area |
Experiment Design 3
Class Data
Student Names | Car Name | Distance (m) | Time (s) | Calculate Speed |
Patrick and Cameron | Juan | 3.8 | 3.8 | 1 m/s |
Jamil and Reyna | Demonater | 2.5 | 11.5 | 0.21 m/s |
Jordan and Renee | Bob | 5 | 22 | 0.22 m/s |
Julian | Walter | 5.5 | 16.7 | 0.32 m/s |
Dom and Ary | Dominator | 5 | 11.7 | 0.42 m/s |
Jonah and Teylor | liggy | 4.9 | 4.3 | 1.13 m/s |
Caiitlin and Jasmin | Car-y | 5 | 7.61 | 0.65 m/s |
Devon and Alex S | imperfect Average Joe | 5 | 3.96 | 1.26 m/s |
Zack and Seamus | The Sea Moose | 5.5 | 8.25 | 0.66 m/s |
Julia | Turtle | | | |
James | The Front Flipper | 1 | 2.8 | 0.35 m/s |
Jacobo | Jacob Jr. | 0 | 0 | 0 m/s |
Brendan and Keana | No Name | 5 | 8.5 | 0.58 m/s |
Tobi | Whatever | 0 | 0 | 0 m/s |
Alex P and KyAuna | Sharkeisha | 4.8 | 4.25 | 1.12 m/s |
| | | | |
| | | | |
Data: Your Car
Timer 1 (s) | Timer 2 (s) | Timer 3 (s) | Uncertainty | Average Time (s) | Distance (m) |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
0.98 | 0.46 | 0.58 | 0.72 | 0.673 | 1 |
01.33 | 1.61 | 1.53 | 1.47 | 1.49 | 2 |
2.15 | 2.58 | 2.36 | 2.365 | 2.36 | 3 |
2.51 | 4.23 | 3.41 | 3.37 | 3.38 | 4 |
| | | | | 5 |
Average Speed
Total Distance (m) | 5 |
Total Time (s) | 7.903 |
Average Speed (m/s) | 0.63 m/s |
Convert to miles per hour | 1.4 mph |
Distance vs. Time Graph
Graph Analysis
Distance | Does the car: speed, slow, or keep a constant speed? | Did the slope: increase, decrease, or stay the same? |
At 1 meter | It s accelerating | Slope increasing |
At 2 meters | Car is still accelerating | Slope increasing |
At 3 meters | Car is accelerating | Slope increasing |
At 4 meters | Car is accelerating | Slope increased |
Analysis - Best Speed Designs
Top Speed Winner: Imperfect Average Joe Insert a picture of the car | What materials did they use? How did they build their car? Design features? | Explain why their car worked so well. Use forces in your explanation. |
2nd Speed Winner: Car Name Insert a picture of the car | What materials did they use? How did they build their car? Design features? | Explain why their car worked so well. Use forces in your explanation. |
Analysis - Best Distance Designs
Top Distance Winner: Car Name Insert a picture of the car | What materials did they use? How did they build their car? Design features? | Explain why their car worked so well. Use forces in your explanation. |
2nd Distance Winner: Car Name Insert a picture of the car | What materials did they use? How did they build their car? Design features? | Explain why their car worked so well. Use forces in your explanation. |
Analysis
Write a strong paragraph that answers the following:
Conclusion
During this experiment we were trying to build a balloon car which would travel the farthest with the fastest speed. First we took a piece of cardboard as our base. Then we added axles and had bottle caps as our wheels. we wanted to know what balloon car will go the farthest and/or fastest? We discovered that our car traveled fast but the speed forced the car out of control. Unfortunately our car wasn’t able to go 5 meters. Our cars speed on the other hand was good we did have an low uncertainty. We were successful in our controlled variables the environment never changed a neither did the amount of air in the balloon. Patterns which we saw was that our car traveled at high speeds usaully around 1 meter per second.