Reflection

Splatter car was a uniqe expirience for me! This project was about science in action, and I enjoy working on the blog, rather than a lab report. I actually really wanted to write a blog before this project, so the timing could not have been more perfect. Being able to take the information we learned in class and put it to use was really fun. I never really thought about all the science in a car before! I really love the creativity of this project! With trial and error Julie and I made a car worth blogging about!

Splatter Car was not perfect on the first try, and even on the final try. Our prototype was not very effective, it was too light to hold the balloon, it needed more mass to contain the force the balloon was exerting on it. The second problem that we had with our car was during the first trail; there was no forward motion in the car. We forgot about F=ma, aka Newton's Second Law. Our car had too much mass to be propelled by the force the balloon was exerting. The final problem we had with the car was that when we did the final testing, it veered a little to the left, so the force of the balloon was pushing the car more to the left. Luckily, Julie and I were able to overcome the issues with Splatter Car to make a fully functioning balloon car.


There is a lot of things I like about Splatter Car. It's race car-esque design helped combat fluid friction. We had non-CD wheels that did not wobble as much as the Cd's, making the car a little straighter (though it had arched). What I like most about Splatter Car was that it was very different from the other cars, but it worked well! We were able to use our knowledge of interia, Newton's Laws and more to make a stylish,working balloon car.