Third Law Cars (Jake Dickerman)
Author(s)
Jake Dickerman, Grant CPDA Magnet
NGSS Engineering Standards
HS-ETS1-3.
Evaluate a solution to a complex real-world problem based on prioritized criteria and trade-offs that account for a range of constraints, including cost, safety, reliability, and aesthetics as well as possible social, cultural, and environmental impacts.
The Engineering Process
PROBLEM - How do you get a message across the room?
DESIGN - Students need to get a note from one side of the room to the other. They are asked to get an object as far across the room as possible as quickly as possible. Students are encouraged to use cardboard, dowels, CDs, balloons, straws, and tape.
OPTIMIZATION - The project takes place over multiple days. Each day, students are asked to revise, rebuild, and retest. The project leads up to a race where students are trying to get their object to move as far as possible as quickly as they can.
Materials needed
Blank CDs
Cardboard
Wooden Dowels
Balloons
Straws
Lots and lots of tape
Group tracking form
Procedure
Day 1:
Students are given a brief overview of Newton's Laws of Motion (see this fantastic visualization lesson) and then presented with the essential problem - how do you get an object across the room?
Students work in groups of three or four
All students are tasked with creating an initial design
Groups must come up with a group design together
Day 2:
Students build their first designs.
Testing
Students are then asked to determine what works and doesn't work about their designs
Revise designs
Day 3:
Repeat Day 2
This can be done as many times as desired
Final Day:
Students do their final fidgets on the newton car.
Head to head battle for supremacy.
Questions
Describe three types of changes that could make your car go further.
A catapult is put onto a set of wheels. The catapult fires to the right. Which direction will the catapult move?
There are two forms of friction that impact cars greatly: air resistance and deforming of the tires, which happens when the tires get squeezed in different directions. How can we see putting air in your tires as an environmentally friendly action?
Real Life Version
Movies
![](https://www.google.com/images/icons/product/drive-32.png)
![](https://www.google.com/images/icons/product/drive-32.png)
![](https://www.google.com/images/icons/product/drive-32.png)
![](https://www.google.com/images/icons/product/drive-32.png)
References
Provide links to relevant websites.