Personal Narrative-The Physics Of My Car

My car did not have a lot of friction where the axles and bearings touched in the front. In the back however, it had tape for extra support on the bearings so it did have some friction in certain cases. I used rubber wheels so the car did not have much friction on the ground but, they the wheels did have a lot of traction on the hallway floor. I tried to get the friction on the back wheels to not get as much friction so it would move more freely but, I did not succeed. In the front of the car I had small dually wheels that were rubber for traction and in the back I had big tires that were also rubber for traction. I probably should not have used those tires. Instead, I should have used CD’s for less weight and less friction on the back axles. …show more content…
The force of my car depended on how much my car weighed and also the amount of force from the lever arm that made it move. I determined the length of my lever arm by just cutting the mousetrap arm at the back axle and had it so it was even with it. I did it there so it would have a force going directly up to get enough acceleration to get the big wheels going in the back. I had too much weight in the back so it did not take off with a lot of acceleration. Instead of taking off quick, it took off slow and when it did, it would not make it the five meters that it was supposed to. A major problem that I had was getting the string off of the zip tie. The string kept on catching on it and would stop my car when it would have probably made it all the way. Even though I did not make it, I thought my car was successful enough to go all the way, but when it took off good it always would have something go wrong with it. I also had a problem with the length of the string that made the axle turn so the car would move enough. If I had a string that was too short, it would make the mousetrap snap and then the car would turn into the wall. Once I made the string a little longer it would hold onto the zip tie and end