Maya Burris's Newton Scooter!

Newton's 1st Law states that an object in motion will stay in motion, and an object at rest will stay at rest unless an unbalanced force acts upon it. This relates to my Newton scooter because if the balloon did not move it would stay at rest. If there was no unbalanced force (friction) then the straw would keep sliding along the string until it hit another unbalanced force fluid friction (air). Newton's 3rd Law states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. This relates to my Newton scooter because the air blowing out of the straw connected to the balloon was its reaction, and the balloon moving the opposite direction was its action. I had difficulty figuring out how I was going to make the "car" with out adding to much weight to make it hard to move. Towards the end I saw a lot of people using this easy and simple way to make a Newton car, so i thought I would experiment with it and it ended up being my final attempt (look at the picture above). I would change my thought process: Maybe next time I would spend more time thinking about the fast and easy way to make something travel and less time spent thinking about how big or fancy it should be. My favorite part about my scooter is that it's easy to build, has no wheels, and the colors are intriguing at first glance.

By Maya S. Burris

Angela Hui's Newton Scooter

Closeup with Action/Reaction Arrows and Labeling

Photo of Newton Scooter with Track

I faced many challenges when building and designing my Newton Scooter. My first few designs (powered by baking soda and vinegar, Coca Cola and Mentos, or rubber band catapult) did not follow the guidelines, so they could not be used. Then, I tried to use a balloon-powered design, but the car was too massive and had too much inertia to be accelerated by a small balloon, or even two small balloons. I tried to lighten the Newton Scooter, but my wheels were poorly crafted and prevented motion. I overcame these challenges by seeing Nicki’s simple yet effective design and emulating it. Now I still have a balloon-powered Newton Scooter, but it is mostly balloon (see images). I would still like to fix my improved Newton Scooter by making it lighter, perhaps by shortening the straw, which seems to be its heaviest part. Maybe I could make it more aerodynamic as well, but I am not sure how to do so without adding too much mass. My favorite part of my Newton Scooter is its simplicity and effectiveness. Before, my designs were more complicated, but they did not work very well at all. In this project I learned to Keep It Simple for Success. Newton’s third law of motion says that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. When I relinquished my grip on the end of the balloon, air escaped, exerting a force (action) away from the balloon. This force’s “equal and opposite” partner (reaction) exerted a force towards the balloon. This caused the Newton Scooter to move. [These forces are represented in the first photograph by the two red arrows.]  Newton’s first law of motion says that an object in motion tends to stay in motion and an object at rest tends to stay at rest unless an unbalanced force acts on it. My Newton Scooter was at rest until an unbalanced force, the escaping air and its equal and opposite reaction caused it to accelerate forward. My Newton Scooter stayed in motion until an unbalanced force, my hand at the end of the track, stopped it.


Note: I only have one video because this attempt was the first one I deemed good enough to record. The other attempts were never formally tested, so they were not recorded.

By Angela Hui

Linda's Newton car videos and picture

sophias over the top newton scooter!

I looked on line and found three ideas. I tried the rubber band idea I found at http://www.ehow.com/how_5652914_make-newton_s-scooter.htmln where you make a rubber band triangle and coins and cut the string when want it to start up but it didn’t give that much of a explanation. I tried it and Caroline gave me an awesome idea for wheels where you use two CD’s and to connect them put three straws threw the hole in the middle. Caroline suggested that I put straws inside the straws to make it stronger. I used to of those that I glued to the front and back of The Newton Car so I had four wheels. When I tested The Newton Car wouldn’t move at all so I went back to square A and decided to make a balloon car like the one in my sketch. I found this idea at http://www.ehow.com/way_5569847_newton-scooter-instructions.html At first I attached a balloon to a the square block and wheels I had in my first Newton Car but I soon discovered that the block was way to heavy for a balloon and when the wheels were attached to the block the wheels wouldn’t move. The four wheels were rubbing together and not moving. I decided to detach the wheels from the block and have a simple design were I would only have two wheels and attach the balloon onto the straws or wheels. When I tried this it was light enough but since the balloon was attached to the balloon so the balloon would spin with the wheels. I discovered I would need a body for The Newton Scooter but light enough that that the balloon would be able to carry it’s wait. I tried many things such as paper, stiraphome and a duck tape block but nothing seemed to work. Finally I saw grace had used a strawberry basket. I used that idea and cut holes for the wheels to go through but that didn’t work then I realized the wheels needed more room to spin so I cut out the whole sides. Then the basket was hitting the floor. I had to leave some of the basket in the top so it would stay in place. I taped the balloon to the top of the basket through the inside and It finally worked. I had a Newton Scooter.Newtons 3rd law(every object has a equal and opposite reaction) relates to my newton scooter because as I Blew up the balloon attached to my newton car and the reaction was that it rolled forward.The air in the balloon pushes it forward and if there is a light enough vehicle attached, the wheels roll nicely and the balloon doesn't touch the ground newtons 3rd law should make your newton car move.Newtons 1st law(things keep moving when there still they still they stay still) relates to my newton car in many ways.When I blow air into the balloon it stays still because there is no reason to propel it forward.When i let go the air propels it forward and so it moves.When the balloon runs out of air and unbalanced force stops the newton car.I love my newton car but I got a lot of ideas from people so next time i want my car to be more unique. I also want to find a way for it to move longer period of time and faster.That would happen if the wheels had less friction against the floor.My favorite part about my newton car is the wheels. They are made out of CD's and have three straws in the inner whole attaching them to an other wheel.I have four wheels.

By: Sophia Schneidman

GRACE'S SPEEDY NEWTON SCOOOTER

   
Newton’s 1^st law is 1) an object at rest will remain at rest unless acted on by an unbalanced force. 2) An object in motion in a straight line will remain in a straight line unless acted on by an unbalanced force. The Newton Scooter relates to this law because the scooter will remain at rest until the balloon pushes the scooter forward. The scooter will remain in motion until the balloon runs out of air or the scooter crashes into a chair, desk, etc. Newton's 3rd law is for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The Newton Scooter relates to this law because the air going out the balloon is the action and the reaction is the car propelling away. A challenge I faced with my Newton Scooter is figuring out how to make the wheels and the body move together. I overcame this challenge by looking at others’ scooters (thanks Weezie) and why theirs worked. I ended up using a strawberry basket and CD’s to build my scooter. What I would like to fix is probably the straw connecting to the balloon because it is unstable. My favorite part of my scooter is definitely the wheels because they’re so fun to play with!  :)

-By Grace

Lauren's Newton Scooter

While building my newton scooter, I had it all set out and completely organized, and I think that that was my main problem. Every time I ran into something wrong with my original idea, I had trouble working around it. One issue I ran into other than that was my wheels- I could barely get them to spin. I had a great idea that would work for a different type of wheel, but mine were too thin and I was unable to get the right amount of wheels necessary for my car. I altered mine by adding a wheel and changing the way they spin. I had only had three wheels, because I had misjudged how many I needed. Some other people got an extra wheel, but not everyone could because there had been a waiting list. My newer plan was to make a more convenient shape for the car, and that way it will be easy to build and light, making it go faster with my balloon. Although it was successful, I wish I could have made it work with my original plan, rather than building off of other peoples ideas... (Thank You Weezie! :D) My favorite part of my car is the body... it's so chic. :)

-Lauren <3

Linda's Newton Car

The Newton car relates to Newton's first law because the first law states that things at rest stays at rest and something in motion stays in motion until acted upon by an unbalanced force. And my Newton car stays at rest, but when my balloon is releases air (the unbalanced force) it caused my Newton car to move. The Newton car also relates to the third law because the third states for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. And the balloon on my car released air to push the car one way. The action was the air leaving the balloon and the reaction was the car moving forward. There have been a lot of challenges throughout the project. At first I couldn't get the car to move. I thought it was the car being to heavy, but it turned out to be the wheels. I thought the wheels weren't smooth enough, but it was the wheel and the rubber band. The rubber band was rubbing against the wheels. I had to change the rubber bands with a smoother material. Another challenge was when the car started to move but it went in circles. I realized that the wheels (again) where to close to my car. And the holes in the center weren't the same size. I had to change the hole in the center and to loosen the wheels.

Weezie's AMAZING Newton Scooter!

Newtons first law is an "object in motion will stay in motion, and an object at rest will stay at rest unless an unbalanced force acts on it". It relates to my newton car because the unbalanced force is the air from the balloon. My car stays at rest until the air from the balloon is let out. It will only stop moving until it hits something or all the air is let out.

Newtons third law is "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction". It relates to my newton scooter because the air from the balloon is blowing backwards, and it propels my newton scooter forwards. So the action of blowing the air backwards has the opposite reaction of moving my scooter forwards.

I overcame many challenges while building my Newton scooter. The first was figuring out my design. After many attempts, I finally realized that attaching the balloon with straws made it unstable so I put popsicle sticks around the edges and it worked. Another one was that I attached my straws and popsicle sticks too low on the balloon. I eventually had to pop it and get a new one. Lastly, I had trouble with the wheels. They wouldn't roll for a while so I had to cut a large hole in the egg carton. That worked but the egg carton was so thin that the holes kept getting ripped. I cut popsicle sticks and glued them on and they worked.

Some of the thing I would have liked to change about my scooter is that I probably would have liked to make the wheels more even. I think that I did a pretty good job and there are not a whole lot of things I would've liked to fix.

My favorite part of my scooter is probably the balloon because it took a lot of work to make it attached to the egg carton and Im proud of it. I also like my wheels because it took a really long time to make them stable, but roll at the same time.

-Weezie

Hanna's Newton Car :D

Newton's 1st Law states that an object in motion will stay in motion, and an object at rest will stay at rest unless an unbalanced force acts upon it. This law relates to my newton car because if you roll up the sticks, the rubber bands will wrap around the sticks and if you don't let go, it will stay at rest. If you let go, it will stay in motion but it will eventually stop due to friction between the wheels and the floor. Newton's 3rd Law states that for every action there is a reaction. When you roll the sticks so the rubber bands wrap tightly around them (action) and let go, the sticks will unwind and since there are wheels on the end of the sticks the car will move (reaction.) I experienced many problems and I faced many challenges. In order to make my car go, a rubber band is tied to a skewer and clipped to the other side of the box. In the video I used to build my car (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQIb94OrA6s) they only did that once and when I rolled the skewer and let go, it didn’t have enough power to go forward, it would just unroll very fast and go about two inches forward. I then did the same thing and tied another rubber band to the other skewer so both wheels would go. I rolled both skewers until it couldn’t roll any longer and let go and the car went very fast! I was so excited and it traveled about three to four meters. Another challenge I faced was when the car would go, the skewers would slide, side to side so to fix this problem I taped a little bit after when the tape pierced the box (on each side) so the skewers would be isolated in one area. Also, the wheels are made of very thin cardboard so they would bend side to side and become weak, so I would have to replace them frequently. To solve this problem, I fastened them with duct tape so they wouldn't move side to side any longer

Kalana's Newton Scooter

Newton's first law states an object in motion will stay in motion and an object at rest will stay at rest unless an unbalanced force acts on it. My car would be staying at rest (not moving) until, an unbalanced force (the balloon- full of air) acts on it. Then, I let go of my balloon (which is attached to my car) , and my car would go speeding straight. If it wasn't for the balloon, then my car wouldn't have ever moved. Newton's third law states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. By letting go of the balloon (an action), my car (the balloon is also attached to my car) would go in the opposite way that the air pressure was released from. In this project, I had many challenges. First of all, I tried 3 different types of car models, but the first and second wouldn't move. I thought it was because of the wheels, but when i manually pushed each car, there was no problem. I experimented with different types of wheels, and each one worked perfectly, but the car still wouldn't move! On my last car, I knew the problem wasn't caused by the wheels, so I used two balloons, attached with straws, to the car. It still would not move. Finally, I almost gave up, when I detached the straw from the balloon, blowed up the balloon, put it in a square of the strawberry carton, and let go of my car. It moved! I realized that when I used a straw attached to the balloon, the straw was very narrow, and barely released any air quickly. Without the straw, the balloon's air pressure is released without anything from slowing it down. The only thing I would still like to fix is probably the placement of the wheels. They move perfectly, it's just that they're not really evenly placed (because of my terrible hot glue skills :)). My favorite part of my scooter is the balloon! (Because balloon's are fun, and that's what makes my whole Newton car move) By: Kalana Pungmuang

Holly's Newton Scooter! :)

Newton's 1st Law: An object in motion will stay in motion and an object at rest will stay at rest unless an unbalanced force acts on it. This law relates to my newton scooter because my newton scooter will stay in motion unless gravity, friction, or any unbalanced force acts on it to make it stop. Also, my scooter will not move unless an unbalanced force pushes it. If my newton scooter did not have the balloon to move it, it wouldn't move at all. Newton's 3rd law: Force always occur in equal opposite parts. This relates to my scooter because when you let the air out of the balloon, (the force that moves my scooter) the scooter will go in the opposite direction the air is pushing out of the balloon because the air is propelling the scooter forward. One challenge I faced was getting the scooter to actually move, one way I solved this was by changing the wheels. Another way I solved this, was I figured out that when the balloon was touching the ground, the scooter wouldn't move. I solved this problem by making a higher surface to put the balloon on so that it wouldn't touch the ground. Since my scooter works perfectly fine, the only thing that I would want to fix at this point is maybe making it more colorful. Also, I would like to try different designs like a rubber band scooter or a mouse trap scooter. My favorite part of my scooter is all of it because it is so much fun to watch it move when all I had to do is blow up the balloon and let go of it! :)

By: Holly

Syd's Mystical Magical Fantastical Shamanistic Marvelous Sensational Momentous Out of the Ordinary Extraordinarily Coolioso Jubilant Funny Newton Car

Newton's first law states that an object in motion will stay in motion and an object in rest will stay in rest unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. This relates to my newton car because it stayed in rest and would have for eternity had I (the unbalanced force) not acted upon it.

Newtons third law (for every action there's an equal and opposite reaction) also relates to my newton car. This is because the action is the air coming out of the balloon and the straw and the reaction is pushing the car the other way, thus fueling the car.

I had many challenges when creating my newton scooter, one of them being that I wanted it to be powered by magnets but there was not enough time to make it work because it was very complicated. Another challenge was how to put the balloon so that it would not drag against the ground and create friction. One more challenge was that I didn't know how i should make the body of my car because since the axels of the wheels were oddly shaped and there wasn't a lot of stuff that i could put them between.

If I had to fix anything about my car still it would probably be making it go faster, because right now it is really slow and can only move very slowly. My favorite part about my car is the body which is a starbursts box. This box was meant for Grace as her secret snowflake but somehow ended up still in my house after Christmas. :)

By: Syd Westley (D)

Natalie's Newton Car :)

I had multiple challenges while creating a working Newton Car. First, all the models I had sketched or planned out did not work. This caused me to have to start from scratch every single time I tried a new car idea. I overcame this challenge by looking up more ideas online and using my knowlege from my failed cars to make new ones. The next challenge I had was every time I would work hard on a new idea or car it would not work. This caused me to become very frusterated because I was out of ideas. To overcome this hard challenge I would spend a long time on one model that didnt work at first, instead of starting over and over on everything if it didn't move. Something I would still like to fix about my model is to make it more sturdy and tough. My car is quite fragile so they wheels would fall off alot and I would have to re-put them on. But, other then that I am pretty pleased with my car. My car relates to Newton's 1st law because it states an object at rest will stay at rest untill acted on by an unbalanced force. My car was still at rest untill the unbalanced force which was the air escaping from the deflating balloon reacted on it. This caused the car to move forcefully forward. My scooter relates to Newton's 3rd law because the 3rd law states that with every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.The first reaction/action was the air leaving the balloon and the equal and opposite was the car moving forward. My favorite part of my car is the base because it is made out of a berry basket and I think that it really cool and creative. -By Natalie D Block

Kyoko's Newton Scooter

Newton's 1st Law states that an object in motion will stay in motion and an object in rest will stay at rest unless an unbalanced force acts on it. This relates to my scooter because if the unbalanced force, the balloon, did not act on my car it would stay at rest. Also if there was no friction, another unbalanced force, between the straw and the string my car would've gone forever until it hits another unbalanced force like the end of the string. Newton's 3rd Law states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. This law relates to my scooter because the reaction of the balloon blowing air out of the straw was it to move forward in the opposite direction. Some challenges I faced was that I had to redesign my car 3 times. I slowly started to realize that simplicity is the best way to go. I started with a really complicated design, then moved to one with less wheels, then to one with no wheels, and finally a balloon on a straw on a string. If I still had more time to revise my car, I would probably find better way to hang the string above ground besides just hanging it on two chairs. I would like more tension on the rope. My favorite part of my car is that it has no wheels and is super simple.

By Kyoko

Franny's Balloon Newton Scooter!

Franny's Balloon Newton Scooter!

Newton's 1st law of motion states that an object in motion will stay in motion and an object at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by a unbalanced force. This relates to my Newton scooter because the car is at rest until the unbalanced force (The air from the balloon) pushes it forward. Newton's 3rd law of motion states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This relates to my car because when the air escaped from the balloon (action) had an equal reaction that pushed it forward. One challenge I had to overcome was the wheels. I couldn't figure out how to keep the wheels attached to the straw. I put more straws in the wheel and the wheels fit snugly to the straws. My favorite part of my scooter is the balloon. My scooter couldn't move without it.

-- By Franny

Nicki's Newton Scooter :)

It may be kind of hard to see what the text in the picture says, but it says, "Action: I let go of the place were the air pressure escapes" and "Reaction: Balloon travels on string in the opposite direction that the air is escaping"



Newton's 1st law is that in object in motion stays in motion (at same velocity) and an object at rest stays at rest unless an unbalanced force is acted upon it (and changes velocity.) That connects to my Newton Scooter because my scooter wasn't in motion until an unbalanced force (me letting go for the air to escape) acted upon it. When I let go and the balloon, the air escaped and the balloon traveled at a constant velocity and stayed traveling until it reached the end of the line and fell off. In Newton's 3rd law, it states that with every action, there is an equal opposite reaction. That connects to my scooter because when I let go of the balloon (action) it traveled in the opposite direction that the air pressure was escaping. At first, my plan for my scooter was to make it rubberband powered. Unfortunately, that didn't work out so I started making a balloon powered car with wheels. The main challenge was that the scooter wouldn't move because the scooter was just too heavy for the balloon. To fix that problem, I tried "shedding layers" off my car to make it lighter- it didn't work, so I tried adding 2 balloons to have more power. Once while I was testing with the two balloons, I noticed that it wouldn't move either because the wheels weren't stable. By then, I needed to get a scooter in to test in class. My Dad re-read the directions for the Newton's Scooters and realized that the scooter could travel though the air. We made a scooter with a balloon, string, and a tapioca straw, and it worked! When I was testing, the balloon would travel the distance needed to qualify as a scooter, but then the balloon would fall off of the string. Before, I taped the balloon to the string with blue tape, but it would still fall off. If I could change something, I would want to find a way so the balloon wouldn't fall off of the balloon while it rides on the track. It may sound strange, but my favorite part of my scooter is the tapioca straw because the hole were you drink from is so big that there isn't much friction between the straw and the string. By Nicki Aquino

Casey's Rubber Band Newton Scooter!

Newton's first law relates to my car because my car stayed at rest until the rubber band is released and it makes the car go. The third law relates to my car because for every time the rubber band moves on the wheels, the wheels will accelerate. I had a few challenges while making my car, my biggest challenge was trying to find the right wheels. I tried CD's, but they were too skinny to make the whole car move. When I finally found the right kind of wheels (A ribbon holder... The circular thing that keeps ribbon together) It finally worked, and I was so proud. Another challenge was trying to get the right size rubber band. I needed a long enough rubber band that would power my car all the way for 1.5 meters. If I could fix one thing, i would fix the treds on the wheels. They kept coming off so that made it harder to make the car go. My favorite part of my scooter would definitely be the wheels because I worked so hard on them, and they work so well!

By: Casey

Rebecca's newton scooter!

Some challenges I faced was the first model of the car I made was too heavy, so I had to recreate a car that finally worked. The old car was made out of wood which weighed too much so it didn't move even though the wheels worked when I spun them myself. Another challenge was the wheels were too small so it couldn't hold up the big block of wood. I then tried making my wheels out of CD's but that didn't work because even though I kept putting more glue and things on the sides to keep them from tilting they still tilted.

My end result of my car was perfect to me and I wouldn't change anything about it. My old car was just a mess and I was stressing out so when I finally got rid of my old car and my new car worked I was so happy.

My favorite part of my scooter is the fact that it has no wheels. The wheels I kept trying to build for my old car never turned out the way I wanted them to be and they were very frustrating. No wheels made my whole scooter a lot easier to work with.

My newton scooter relates to Newton's first law because my newton scooter would've stayed in motion if my balloon didn't run out of air (that was the unbalanced force). It also was acted on by friction because it had no wheels so it was just dragging on the floor.

My newton scooter relates to Newton's third law because the action was the balloon blowing out air and the reaction was the scooter moving forward. My first draft of my scooter didn't have a reaction because it was too heavy for the balloon to move forward.

By: Rebecca Cormack