Physics of Car Racing

What I tried today- why I tried it: My group and I tried to stick a balloon to the car, we were hoping that it would make the car go faster but slow it down in the end.

What happened when I tried to race it? When I tried to race it, it didn't spin around, it didn't go sideways, the car went straight and it stopped pretty close to the line.

What will I try next time? Next time I would try to change it more, and to research more ideas about how to make our car better.

What research did I do? I researched 'how to make a toy car go faster', it didn't really come up with anything helpful. All of the ideas that the sites gave me were to add batteries, or to add a fan on it.

17/5/17
1.What has been done to make this a 'fair test'?

• All of the groups were given the same materials.
• All of the groups had the same car.
• All of the groups were given the same amount of time to modify their car.

Even though we were all given the same car some of the groups wheels broke.

2.What forces are needed to make the car go faster and how have you modified your car accordingly? 

Thrust: Thrust is the force that pushes your car.

Accelerate: A force that makes an object faster.

For the first modification we did on our car we added a paper spoiler to the back hoping that it would slow down the car making it stop at the finish line.

For the second modification we added rubber bands around the car, again hoping that the car would slow down. 

For the third modification we added a balloon on the end reducing its weight so that it would go faster, and we also added a clay spoiler to the back of the car hoping that it would help the car pick up more pace while its going down the track.

3.What forces are need to make the car stop and what adjustments have you made to try and stop the line?

Drag: Drag is the force that slows down the car.

Friction: Friction is the force that is made when two objects crash into each other. Making the objects stop.

We haven't added anything on car to make it stop, but instead we were going to add sand paper to the end of the track.

4. What forces are needed to make the car travel further and what adjustments have you made to achieve this?

Thrust: Force that pushes the car. Depending how much force you push your car, your car will travel further.

Accelerate: Force that makes things go faster. The faster your car goes, the further it goes.

5.