Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Portfolio Must!!!

Designing, constructing and testing your car requires steps. Make sure a step by step guide is in your portfolio as you build and tweak your car. This needs to be organized and kept in a safe place till the end. Post one thing you have found from the internet or me that increases speed or distance....what hints have you found????

32 comments:

CodyKevin&Lance said...

Kevin, Lance, and I found that by varying the length of the rod on the car, you can increase the speed of the car.

Ruth & Cheyanne said...

The smaller your wheels, the faster your car travels because they spin a smaller circle than large wheels. (have to spin more)

sean&jarboe said...

something that would incease a distance car performance is a longer lever arm which provides less energy over a longer period of time. something that would increase a speed car performance is a shorter lever arm so that it releases more energy over a shorter period of time.


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daniel adam(s) said...

We found that rubber bands can be a good source of traction for either type of car.

laura&chrissy said...

a bigger lever arm increases the speed of the mouse trap car than with a smaller lever arm. our distance cars name is Lemon!!!!!!!!

laura&chrissy said...
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laura&chrissy said...

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julia and abby and julia and abby said...

Julia and I found that the distance car is more efficient with bigger wheels. This means that more distance is covered in one rotation.

CodyKevin&Lance said...

Just So everyone knows.....Whatever happened....KEVIN did it

CodyKevin&Lance said...

We also found that the size of the wheels, particularly the back wheels, have an effect on the speed and/or distance.

Jessica Flora said...

Something that increases distance would be putting balloons around the wheel. This decreases friction, allowing the mousetrap car to go farther because there are less forces acting against it.

Troy & Tyler said...

Tyler and I have found that if we make a smaller and thinner car that the speed will increase.

Spencer & Andrew said...

Andrew and I figured out that distance cars actually need lighter weight wheels so that more energy is displaced in the forward motion o the car instead of having more energy wasted in the rotation of the wheels.

boochi and erin said...

Boochi and I have found that putting balloons on the wheels increased traction of the car which can increase the distance of the car.

The name of our car is The Hawk.

daniel adam(s) said...

We are using paint sticks as our base for the mousetrap car. We're also using O-rings for stability of the wheels. (O-rings are little, rubber, circular rings that we're going to put around our axles).

Spencer & Andrew said...

We have named our car The Bear. Bears are slow but they can go long distances(we hope.)

daniel and julie said...

Some tips that Julie and I have found are to make wheels smaller on a speed car than a distance, to have a longer lever arm for distance, and to use objects around the wheels for traction, such as balloons.

Cam and Paul said...

Something that increases speed would be small wheels because there would be more rotations, large wheels would be for distance cars, because there would be more distance per rotation.

molly & ellie said...

molly and i have found that if we use larger wheels for our distance car it will travel further. we also have discovered that using a larger lever arm will propel the car further, and if we use balloons on our wheels it will increase traction and decrease friction, keeping out car moving.

Anonymous said...

we learned that the size of the wheel and the weight of the base effect the speed or distance a car travels.

Bryce/Bobby said...

Bobby and I like the medium sized wheels because they go faster than the big wheels and farther than small wheels :-}

derek a & connor d said...

Connor and i found that if you take away the lever arm, and just use a string that goes straight back to the back wheels, it takes away time an energy. Therefore the car can get faster jump at the start

derek a & connor d said...
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amanda&lauren said...

We found out that the bigger the wheels, the further your car will go with one rotation. This helps with distance cars.

Josh&John said...

a lighter car makes it go farther

daniel adam(s) said...

We are drilling but the the hole we need for are axle is 1/2 inch and the drill bit is about 3/32 of a inch give or take a 1/32 of a inch. So we have to creat the circle with a smaller bit.

Maria+Jenny said...

if you very the size of the wheels, a car with go further/shorter, faster/slower.

Chad&Ryan said...

We found that if the wheels on a car are not secure, it can affect if the car goes straight and even the end product.

steven and kainon said...

the smaler the wheel and the more torque the faster the car will go

Bryce/Bobby said...

We've decided to make our speed car out of legos and that should make it faster

Cam and Paul said...

When I was searching on the internet I found that large wheels are used for distance, and small wheels are used for speed.

Anonymous said...

We decided to build a distance car, so we're making the wheels out of CDs and putting balloons around them to create friction. Also, we're making a lever arm for the mousetrap and attaching a rubber band so we have elastic energy. The lever arm and rubber band are really long so we can wind it up a lot of times, making it go farther.