Friday, March 13, 2009

FINAL TAKE

So, today is Friday, March the 13th, 2009 and the balloon car race was about 3 days ago I believe, on Tuesday march the 10th. We went fourth. Unintentionally, upon releasing the balloon, the car travelled at an angel during both trial runs. Despite that fact, our car successfully passed and exceeded the 5 metre mark. One piece of material greatly assisted us in passing the 5 metre mark- tape. That’s right, tape. When the balloon was blown up during our practice runs, and released, the forward force always pushed the balloon back which caused air to be lost and, thus, resulted in less distance as well as speed. By taping the balloon down to the top of the car when it was blown up, it made the balloon stay down while the car was moving and resulted in less air being wasted. Therefore, we covered more distance.

Anyway, this was a very educational experience and it was fun. What more can we say? Congratulations to all the other participants, especially to the group that broke the record. We would also like to thank Mr. Papadimitriou for organising this for his students and giving us the opportunity to take part in this. Much appreciated.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

TAKE EIGHT

Okay, now for the videos of us testing it...it was VERY fustrating to get it to right when there was not enough room for it.

TAKE SEVEN

One of our earlier models that had useless things(extra cardboard & tissue) to slow it down.

TAKE SIX

YAY! NEW DESIGN

We've finally come up with a new design (modified from the previous one) that is made of lighter materials.

TAKE FIVE

We've have decided to use thinner cardboard instead. Maybe this will lighten the load to help us cross the finish line of 5m. However, we're modifying teh design to finally make it our own.

TAKE FOUR

Okay, so we've tested our design out and it did not work out as we hoped it would. So, we've taken the car apart and we're keeping the wheels hoping to make a better design.