BALLOON RACERS & BOILER
CHALLENGE
By
Steven, Julius, Kayla, Monica, & Ben
BALLOON RACER
The Balloon Racer was a lab when we demonstrated an example of
Newton’s 3rd law of motion by moving a car using a balloon.
The whole point of the experiment was to understand Newton’s 3rd law
which is “For every action there is an equal but opposite reaction.”
PREPERATION
We had to first plan out the design of the car that we thought would be successful.
The supplies we were given were 2 wooden axles, 1 balsa wood board, 2 bendy straws, 4
wooden wheels, 1 balloon, and tape.
We had to create the car on our own in groups using only the materials above.
TESTING
It turns out that the majority of our camp failed to move the assigned distance in a
straight line.
Many times the car didn’t move at all. The reasons were that the balloon was in the way,
there wasn’t enough tape, the wheels fell off, the balloon didn’t produce enough force
to move the car etc.
Then after trying to move the car with balloon we tried to move the car with magnets and
that was a success.
BALLOON RACER LAB CONCLUSIONS
Even with the difficulties we did learn some things.
For example: the times it did move we saw the balloon blow out air behind the car
forcing it to move forward.
When we used the magnets it was much easier to see Newton’s 3rd law in action.
BOILER CHALLENGE
The boiler challenge was a team building event that made everyone cooperate with each
other
FINAL THOUGHTS
Ben- My favorite thing about camp was learning about physics and going
to Indiana Beach.
Kayla- I also liked our trip to Indiana Beach.
Julius- I liked messing with my roommates, going to Indiana Beach, and
the fountain run.
Monica- I liked meeting new people and going to Indiana Beach.
Steven-