Race Day was today

And I think we did pretty well!

The first trial our car went a little to the right, and hit a group of people which may have somewhat affected it (I still question why we weren't doing this alone, the people only distracted us)

The second time we accidentally had the balloon twisted too much so it didn't go.

The morning before, though, the balloon managed to go a total of 44 feet, which is 13.2m

I think we may have gotten second or third farthest distance though.

Either way, Marlon and I had a bunch of fun in this contest. Besides the challenge of building a successful balloon car, we also got a chance to become acquainted with our future classmates.

I still have to create the booklet, but it appears that this will be our final post. Thank you for following our journey these past three weeks, and we hope you enjoyed it. :]

Does this thing have a spoiler option? I have no clue.

Either way, you're in for a REALLY long post, so get ready =D

Marlon brought in his car today. It works brilliantly, although it still turns a bit to the right even after some adjustments. However, we're going replace his wheels with mine since my axles are more stable.

I thought I had forgotten my camera, so I drew a sketch of the balloon car.

Then I found my camera, so....

The picture was drawn from memory, by the way. I think I did it pretty accurately.

Anyways, we got a chance to record a video. It's fast and goes pretty far, but I'm still waiting for the trial runs on it.

I was planning on posting some of my robot drawings from today, too, but I have to go somewhere in five minutes, so I'll upload them in a different post. Race Day is tomorrow- see you all there and may the odds be ever in your favour :]

ETA: Marlon, I left a comment for you

The Competition is On!

Remind me to replace my straws- they're too weak to sustain the amazing power of the balloon.

Anyway, today Marlon and I brought in our cars. It appears that we'll be using his- why?

It can go 7m in two seconds. I'm still waiting for an image and trial runs, but as soon as they are given to me I will post them here.

Lastly, a shoutout to Royce, who is forever alone today.



Trial Run Video

Decided to get this video up and running :]

The requirement is to have two trial runs in one continuous shot, but I dislike handling the camera and blowing the balloon so I did have to pause them. The videos are taking an exceptional amount of time to upload, so I'll only post the last trial.

Please enjoy! :)

Bigger Trial Area Needed...

I was able to conduct two more trial runs.

One I did in the same place as I did yesterday, to see if it would run straighter. (It definitely did, just went straight to the wall!)

After that I started in the kitchen, which is about five metres from one end to another. Once again, the car hit the wall of the living room with a thunk, and ended with 783.75cm.

The highest speed was still yesterday's 107cm/s, and I think at this point it depends on the size of the balloon. The balloon I'm using now is a temporary one, I'm hoping to get a really big one tomorrow to use instead. I'm also hoping that said really big balloon will make the car hit at least ten metres!

I'll update with more trial runs when I get the new balloon. :]

Success! =)

It works! My three-wheel design worked!

I had two wheels in front, and one in the back (the back one is supported with Knex pieces and kabob sticks) and the balloon is attached to a straw that goes through the foam and propels it from the ground.

In terms of trial runs, this car works a lot better than the previous one. I got rid of one CD and 54 square inches of foam, making it much lighter. My only concern is that it pulls a bit to the left, but I'll be fixing the back wheel today as I noticed I alligned it incorrectly.

Trial runs:

(The first one I accidentally forgot to convert into cm, since I was measuring in inches)

Because of the turning issue, it kept hitting the dining table.

After leaning it to the right a bit, it went the full way, across the hall and the living room, and hit the wall with a thud. Clearly I'm going to need a bigger trial area!

I'll update with more trial runs after the car is fixed. I'll most likely be taking it outside to see how it performs.



Aw, it's so cute!

But, cute as it may be, our tiny little playing card car does not work well.

Don't get me wrong, it's wonderfully, wonderfully fast.

But it only goes in circles...

It's comical watching it go and spin around (I'll have to post a video eventually) but unfortunately we need a balloon that goes nice and straight.

And while I could fix this one, I have another car that needs some fixing so I'll work on that one first.

*NOTE* The Magic Card had a merciful death. ;)