Reflection/Conclusion- Balloon Car Project- Matt Fothergill and Joe DeMaio

At the beginning of our project, we were very stumped on which to make our wheels. Our first prototype included having two Gatorade caps taped to each other making which turned out to be a bad idea. Another idea that did not work well would be our actual base. We started with a heavy type of base and eventually changed to the top of Matt's shoe-box which turned out successful. Another problem with our balloon car would be our first straw which was a Dunkin' Donuts straw which was too wide. The air came out too fast and our car couldn't get a good enough push to start its trip. One thing that went extremely well would be our choice to make our wheels CD's. These worked well because they were thin, had much less friction than the caps, and if kept straight moved very fast. Another great choice was our axle design. We had our wooden stick hot glued to our wheels and a straw acting as a sleeve on the outside of the wooden stick which was glued strategically to the base. This made the axles spin with the wheels and not affect the base. Another good idea was the way we fixed our balloon before the second trial. We built a sort of support to raise our balloon higher, making the air escape at a higher altitude which ultimately extended our car's distance 6 meters from the previous day. We thought about using these essential technique by studying long and hard and try many and many ideas, CD's worked the best as wheels because they had the least amount of friction and had many revolutions which gave us more distance. The MVP (Most Valuable Part) on our balloon car was by far our CD wheels. They gave us much more distance than we expected and was all we could ask for. We enjoyed this project and were happy with our final distance.

Balloon Car Analysis- Matt Fothergill and Joe DeMaio

Our balloon car relates to Newton's 1st Law of Motion in several ways. For example, the car stayed at rest until we released the balloon which caused an unbalanced force that pushed our car forwards. If it wasn't for friction, then our car would have kept moving unless acted on by an unbalanced force, because the friction of the hallway floor rubbing against our CD wheels slowed the car down. Our balloon car also relates to Newton's 2nd Law of Motion. When we were creating our balloon car, we wanted to make sure that it was not too heavy. The heavier the car, the slower the car would go due to inertia. The balloon would not have enough force to overcome the inertia of the car if too heavy. Since our car had less mass, it required less force to move. This meant that our car's momentum would be lower because it is lighter. However, if our car had a lot of mass, then its momentum would be higher but would have to surpass the initial inertia. The only problem with that is the fact that the balloon would not have enough force to make the car start moving; therefore, there is no point in having a lot of momentum if the car cannot overcome the initial inertia. Our balloon car relates to Newton's 3rd Law of Motion because of the air that is being pushed out of the balloon. The air pushing one way is acting as the action, and the car rolling the other way is the reaction. This is how our balloon car related to Newton's Laws of Motion.

Joe DeMaio & Matt Fothergill Trial 2

      Trial 2 went extremely well, our car moved 23.4 meters, which is a 110%. During the first trial we noticed the issue regarding the balloon touching the wheels of our car, preventing it from rolling smoothly. That night we took the balloon car home, and since we had already received a perfect score, Joe had an idea that he wanted to try and make our car go 20 meters and beyond for that extra 10%. We wanted a way to keep the balloon from touching the wheels of our car without adding too much weight. More weight would give the car more momentum which would theoretically make it roll farther. The only problem with that idea is the fact that adding weight would increase inertia; there is no point in trying to make your go farther if it won't start. The balloon is not all that powerful, so we decided not to add weight with supports. We ended up building a platform that the balloon could rest on, so it was above the wheels. Overall we are very pleased with our results, and were thrilled in having the best in the class, giving us an extra 100% on a quiz grade!

Joe DeMaio & Matt Fothergill Trial 1

      Trial 1 went decently well. We succeeded our goal of reaching 10 meters by 7 meters. We noticed during the trial, when the balloon was blown up, it was touching the wheels of our car which caused it to slow down. After the balloon got small enough that it did not touch the wheels, the car got a little burst, and glided for a while. We figured if we could get the balloon to not touch the wheels from the get-go, then our car would reach its maximum potential. Our car has CD's for wheels, so the whole car revolves around the gliding aspect. CD's are heavier, so if the car does not get enough momentum in the beginning, then the car will not move. During the trials, we noticed other cars that were rolling well and seemed like they were going to go far, but they ended up hitting the lockers, or the doorway. We made sure that our car had straight wheels so we would not encounter that problem. We got 17 meters as our final distance for trial 1, which is a 100%, so we decided to make some changes and go for gold.

Blog Design Process-1st Entry- Matt Fothergill and Joe DeMaio- Period 2

We have put a lot of thought and work into our balloon car so far. At first, we tried using Gatorade caps as our wheels and learned that we had a problem with the caps turning and getting them going. We met for the first time over Thanksgiving Break at Matt's house to discuss some ideas and get a basic outline done. After 2 hours of work, we realized that our car didn't move and started all over again. After a couple days of us thinking about what we should do next, at the full work period Joe and I learned that we were going to use CD's as our wheels. After we came to this plan, we talked to a Sophomore, Dan Bentall, on his Balloon Car project last year, he suggested the CD's were a good idea and mass is the key. We have spent no money up to this point and plan on not having to, we think we have all the supplies we need. Joe and I met for the second time on Thursday, December 1st and had a really productive meeting and at the end we were pleased on how our car was moving and the speed it was rolling at. We both offered good ideas and at different times were the command of language while we were discussing and thinking about how we can make our car the best it can possibly be. The video was taken on December 1st, right at the end of our work meeting in which we thought our car became very good.