The first step of making your car is by getting the frame of the car.

Measurements are important

and you must know the dimensions of your wooden frame. In this case, our car was 20cm x
25cm wooden frame. After this, get a 1cm block and attach it to a popsicle stick and glue it to
the back of the frame, this way it doesn’t scrape against the floor when moving. This piece will
be used to hold the elastic.

The second step of making the car is making the axle. Separate the hinges and place the
cylinder stick inside the hole of the hinges as shown. After, get your makeshift wheels and hot
glue them to each side of the cylinder stick. Before doing so, make sure that the cylinder stick is
1cm longer than the width of your car on each side to provide space to insert the wheels. After,
make another one and prioritize it as your back axle. This time, you must use CDs as your
wheels to provide elevation to the back of the car. Finally, take a popsicle stick and cut off 1cm
of the popsicle stick. Use that 1cm piece and glue it to the middle of the axle (advised to use
tape as well to provide more stability to the piece). This piece will also be used to hold the end
of the elastic, and when the elastic is stretched on to both sides, it will cause tension. Winding
back the axle will cause more tension to the elastic, letting it go will allow the elastic to pull the
axle forward using all its build-up force.

Last step is attaching both pieces together. Line-up the holes of the hinges with the corners of
the back of the frame, with a reminder to make sure that there’s enough space for the piece on
the axle to move freely and not hit up against the frame when rotating. Draw dots on frame for
where the circles of the hinges are and get your power drill to drill holes into the frame. Last but
not least, get screws and screw the hinges into the frame (make sure the screws aren’t longer
than a cm or else it will go through the frame and make sure the screws are wide enough to fit
into the holes of the hinges.

2. There are 3 Newton's Laws of Motion. The car we made dealt with all three of Newton’s
Laws. Newton’s First Law, inertia, is present as the car is in rest. For example, when the car
was behind the starting line and it was ready to move. Then, once the car gets moving there is a
net force applied on the car. That force applied is the elastic band that we attached to the axel
from the base of the car. Once we attached both ends of the elastic, we began to twist the axle
counter clockwise. This created tension in the elastic which causes the car to move once we let
go of the axle. We twisted the axle counter clockwise because we wanted the car to go forward,
if we twisted it clockwise, the car would’ve moved backwards. That’s how Newton’s Second Law
was incorporated into the car. Furthermore, as the car started to move, Newton’s Third Law
came into effect as well. For the wheels of the car to start moving the action force has to have
the same reaction force. This means that the action force, which is the force applied is the same
as the reaction force, which is the force of friction the ground gives to the wheels of the car. For
example, once the car starts moving and the wheels push down on to the ground the ground
pushes back which moves the car. There is a force of gravity acting on the car too and also the
normal force.
3. Materials used:
● Wooden Frame (ours was 20cm x 25cm)
● 2x Popsicle sticks
● 2x Wooden cylinder sticks
● 2x Hinges
● 2x Doorknob from children’s house playset (if unable to find, use a bottle cap or drill a
hole into a wooden sphere. If you’re making this without regarding the rules of the
project, then use any set of toy car wheels.)
● Power Drill
● Hot glue gun
● Small wooden brick (ours was a jenga piece)
● 8x screws
● 2x CDs

Elastic Potential Energy of the Elastic: (E​in​)

To calculate total elastic potential energy you need to use the equation PE=½ kx​2 ​. In this
equation, k, represents the spring constant in newton metres and x represents the total
displacement of the rubber band from its resting position. After doing some research we found
that the most common valve for a spring constant is around 90N/m, which is why it is used here.

PE =½ kx​2
PE = ½ (90N/m)(0.112 m)​2
PE = 0.56 J

Speed and Kinetic Energy of the Car at the 2 Meter Checkpoint: (E​out )​
V=D/t
V=2.00/4.5
V=0.44 m/s

E​out =​ E​k
2
E​out = ​ 1/2mv​
E​out ​= ½(0.6003)(0.44)​2
E​out = ​ 0.058 J

Therefore, the speed at which the car traveled passed the 2m line was 0.44 m/s and the total
kinetic energy of the car was 0.058 J.

The Car’s Efficiency:

EFF = E​out /​ E​in ✖

​ 100%
EFF = 0.058/0.56 ✖ 100%
EFF = 10%
Energy Transfers & Energy Lost:
Energy of the rubber band was lost when about to let go so the car can move.

4.References:

https://youtu.be/6wWPGABoAKM