1. Given the challenge and the performance of your car on Test Drive #1, what change(s) did you make for Test Drive #2? We made our back part of our “car” bigger because the more mass it has the more kinetic energy it takes with it.
2. What differences did you predict these changes would make in your car’s performance? What makes you think this? We predicted this would make our car much faster and it would go farther.
3. Think about the variables such as the size of the spool, weight of the washer or tension of the rubber band. How might these affect how far or how fast your car will go? The more mass, the more kinetic energy the vehicle has. We also extended our rubber band which made our car have more elastic energy.
4. What worked better the second time? Our entire car worked better the second time seeing as it went farther and faster.
5. What still is not quite working? We still weren’t able to get the car to roll much after its first impact with the ground. It did more sliding than rolling.
6. What questions do I have? How is it possible to make this vehicle better?
7. What might I try next? I think I would try and minimize the Duct Tape so as to increase the rollability of the vehicle.
8. Explain the energy transfer that is taking place in the racer. The racer starts with a bunch of elastic energy and as it’s used up it’s being converted to kinetic energy and using the kinetic energy to slide on the ground.