DESIGNING A BALLOON CAR SALAR SOBHI

Aim: To design a Balloon Car that will exceed in terms of performance. Equipment: *Balloon *Lego Parts *Sticky Tape *Shampoo Bottle *Straws *A preferred exhaust for air output *Lachlan and Mark for assistance. Procedure: *Plan the design of your vehicle. *Test preferred propulsion. *Build two of the most preferred vehicles designed (one for in case one underperforms or broken.) *Race. Planning: The objective was to build a badass, powerhouse balloon car that would have maximum acceleration and greatest displacement. Therefore for an object to fit that criteria and to be powered by a balloon meant that it would need to be light, aerodynamic and slick.

Figure 1) The ideal design for a powerhouse drag racer balloon car, made our of engineered plywood, unfortunately difficult to replicate manually.

The concept design vehicle would be very difficult to produce manually with the lack of carpentry skills and access to the engineered plywood, therefore improvisation was required. Mark, Lachlan and I opted to create a design each, each with its own philosophy and performance capability [attached on attached pages 1,2,3 respectively.] Design 1) Mark Obradovic's PowerRacer Mark's philosophy was speed. A very compact design, but its sheer

brilliance in acceleration to take into advantage its very light weight. Wheels lubricated in oil just before the race to reduce coefficient of friction to get the maximum distance, shampoo bottle for its rigid, light design. Mark decided to use a large-holed exhaust to get the maximum acceleration. MARK'S PROPULSION TESTS Attempt Distance(m) Time(s) 1 11.1 7.01 2 8.5 6.00 3 9.8 6.06 4 10.1 6.51 The surface used was house tiles.

Design 2) Lachlan's Adventurer

Lachlan's Adventurer was purely on the philosophy of willpower and to utilise the power of the exhaust for the maximum distance hence its name, the Adventurer. A design that is inspired by Lego, light plastic bricks that would create a robust and unfailing design. A very small hole was used in the exhaust to moderate the output of air to keep a constant velocity to harness the maximum distance as the distance is to be rewarded for more point than the acceleration that lead to his philosophy of 'play it safe'. Three wheels were utilised to keep a straight path and damped wheels to reduce the friction with the surface. LACHLAN'S PROPULSION TESTS Attempt Distance 1 14.1 2 9.9 3 10.4 4 11.3 5 13.3 The surface used was house tiles.

Time 15.89 12.22 14.65 14.69 16.57

Design 3) Salar's Horizontal Pegasus

A design that was not bothered for production, a design that did not reflect its name. Based on an amateur's design of straws, skewers and bottle caps to create axels for the wheels with a milk carton and a balloon connected to two straws. A very hollow design that did not reach the satisfaction of our other group members.

Therefore Lachlan, Mark and I decided to go for Mark's design for its impressive time and considerable distance which was not far from Lachlan's standards. We decided to still consider Lachlan's design for backup in case a situation occurred such as breaking etc. Therefore we ended up with the Pegasus. Judgement: Rank Group Distance(m) Time (1st2m)(s) 2 Mini Buggatti 9.1 3.84 5 Pegasus 6.4 3.13 3 The Car 7.5 1.22 4 Heca Firimar 3.5 1.84 1 Super Car 9.8 3.06 6 Well Good 5.1 2.79 Conclusion: The car performed poorly overall and Lachlan's car was to be used because of Mark's Car performing well under expectations. Lachlan's Car gave a mediocre performance but was still our best result. I suggest for improved results later is to do more tests on different surfaces as ours had a low friction coefficient hence the ground have a greater one, meaning less displacement. We felt that we did not deserve such a low aggregate score but will be competing next time.