Allen 1

Alex Allen

Mrs. Rubel

Science 6th Period

18 September 2009

Applying Newton’s Three Laws of Motion to My Balloon Car

The materials Megan and I used to make our balloon car were a water bottle, two sticks of wood, plastic wheels, screws, a PVC pipe, a balloon, screws and tape. Our balloon car’s was design out of the water bottle. My father helped us build it by screwing screws that connected the two wooden sticks to the bottom of the water bottle, and the sticks held the wheels that stayed to the car by placing a screw on each side of it. Instead of the straw, our Meagan and mine’s balloon car had a pipe to let air release air faster in order to try to push it farther. The pipe stayed to the car by tape. And that’s how we used those materials to make the balloon car.

Newton’s first law states that an object at rest will stay at rest and an object in motion remains in motion at a constant speed and in a straight line unless acted upon by a greater or unbalanced force. My balloon car showed this by when unbalanced forces acted upon it. The unbalanced forces were air resistance and friction. Air resistance was acting upon my car the whole time that it was moving, and friction made my wheels slow down at the end, and then stop. Also, if not for friction and gravity, the balloon car would of kept on going in a straight line at a constant speed. That is how Newton’s first law applies to Megan’s and mine’s balloon car.

The acceleration of an object depends on the mass of the object and the amount of force applied. Also, an objects acceleration decreases when it’s mass increase; this is Newton’s second law. Megan’s and mine’s balloon car’s mass was increased so how fast it accelerated decreased. The balloon car weighed a little to much for it to accelerate fast. And maybe I should of blown the balloon a little bit bigger to increase the amount of force applied to give it a little more acceleration, but I was afraid of the balloon popping.

According to Newton’s third law, whenever one object exerts a force on a second object, the second object exerts an equal and opposite force on the first object. Megan and mine’s balloon car proved this when the air from the balloon propelled the car forward. This is how the balloon car was an example of

Allen 2

Newton’s third law.

My car design was poor and Megan and I should of designed it better. Because of the design the car did not accelerate well nor have a good time. If we could redo the project, I would start over, make the car out of a tissue box with push-pops as wheels, have a straw to let the air flow instead of a pipe, and make it as light as possible. I think that the balloon car that Megan and I was to heavy for the air that was stored in the balloon to push. But I would no matter what make the car as light as possible.

One new thing that I learned by making this balloon car was inertia. Inertia is a resistance to change in motion. Also, the more mass of an object, the greater its inertia. Another thing I learned was two different types of friction, which were rolling friction and fluid friction and how they affected how wheels roll. And I’m glad I learned those two new concepts. It has taught me stuff that I need to know when I am finally able to drive, which is basically why I enjoyed this project.