We tried many ideas when making our car. Our first thought was to make it out of wood. We quickly realized that wasn't going to work. The wood made the car have too much mass so it didn't even accelerate. We also found out that not having a nozzle would be a mistake. We didn't think we would need one but it turns out that was essential. It caused the action-reaction pair to be strong resulting in better take-off. We also put our nozzle directly on the car without placing it or anything. After our first trial, we made a station for the nozzle to be placed in. It improved the distance by a lot. Those were our three major mistakes.
Our three biggest acomplishments with the car mostly had to do with the wheels. Our wheels were CDs which were perfect for the car. They made long strides and were easy to turn. The second thing we did that worked was changed the base from wood to cardboard. The cardboard was light but not too light so it still had so momentum after the balloon blew out. I feel our best decision was making axels for our wheels. They fit snugly and rolled well keeping our balloon car straight. The most valuable part of this project was seeing our lesson in action! We finally made the connections between mass and momentum and action and reaction pairs. It finally made sense it real life.
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