Science Car Races

The balloon car race is an annual event that is held by the 8th grade science classes. In each period, students were split up into teams of three or four people and were tasked with making a balloon-powered car within a week with the goal of making it travel as far as possible. Many groups had very unique designs, making wheels out of bottle caps, old CDs, and even using Lego wheels, but unique does not always mean the car will go far. Very light designs usually made it far because little force was required to move them, but teams had to be careful and make the car stable so that it would not flip or turn.
On the other side of the spectrum, heavier cars had wheels made out of old CDs or DVDs. These cars were heavier, but they carried more momentum when the balloon ran out of air, allowing them to also go very far if engineered correctly. In the contest, there were many interesting designs including cars with three wheels, or ones that were made entirely of Legos. Overall, the results of the cars in the final race differed drastically, some went as far as sixty-six feet and three inches and others went backwards. The Reaction Racer 500 event was a success.