Balloon Car Rocket
Project
Erin B.
Trevor S.
Emily B.
Hour 2
Introduction
• Distance Traveled: 2.5 meters
• Mass: 39.7 grams
• Special Features: The car has a
3 straw nozzle for enhanced acceleration.
• Design Strategy: We used a water bottle for a
lightweight design. We also had a straw as a
nozzle because then we could direct the
airflow. By directing the airflow, our car could
achieve maximum distance and speed.
Introduction: Group Roles
Emily:
• brought our car’s wheels (Vitamin Water caps) and nozzle (straws)
• contributed by devoting her class time and bringing it home for the
weekend to finish building and testing the car
• was the Recorder
Erin:
• brought the tape and rubber bands to put our car together.
• also our project manager because she helped out in every aspect to
reach optimal performance.
• put together the powerpoint once everyone added their information
to Google Docs
Trevor:
• brought in the water bottle and axles (bamboo skewers).
• thought of the car design, which gives him the Engineer role.
• carried out the design plan with the group for help to correct errors
and enhance the car design if needed
Results
The 1st experiment we did was to
figure out how to make our current
nozzle (3 straws) work. At first, we
tried to keep the balloon on the nozzle
with 1 rubber band, but the air came
out of the balloon when I blew. Next,
we tried putting on a couple of rubber
bands, and the balloon was able to be
blown up, which made the car move.
Results
Our next experiment was to figure out what wheels
helped the car to move quickly. We tried using
bottle caps from sparkling water because there
weren’t many ridges on it, so we thought that there
would be less friction. The wheels didn’t work as
well as we’d hoped, so we tried Vitamin Water caps
next. They had tiny ridges, which would decrease
the amount of friction between the car and the
floor. The wheels ended up working very well, and
the car could move quickly.
Research
• Our group watched this video to get more
information on Newton’s 3 Laws. We used the
information from this video and applied it to our
car.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH48Lc7wq0U
&feature=player_detailpage
• We also used this video to help us better
understand Newton’s 3 Laws of Motion.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFI29NoG-Ko
Newton’s 1st Law
• definition: An object at rest
stays at rest unless acted upon
by a force.
• Any object with acceleration
requires a force
• At the start, our car was at rest.
It didn’t move until it was acted
upon by the air blowing out of
the balloon. The air blowing
out is the unbalanced force
acting upon it.
These are the straws we
used to help the car move.
Newton’s 2nd Law
• the force needed to
accelerate an object equals
the mass of the object
multiplied by its acceleration
• it will have more acceleration
if its mass is less
• We made sure that our car
didn’t have a lot of mass so
that there would be less force
acting on it and it would have
more acceleration.
The mass of this car greatly
affected the distance of this
car.
Newton’s 3rd Law
• Definition: For every
action, there is an equal
and opposite reaction.
• This law was very
important to our car. The
air blew out of the balloon,
causing the car to go in the
opposite direction
The straws helped push the air
out of the balloon, making the car
move in the opposite direction.