Darrien Spitz Reflection

During the process of making the balloon car, many ideas worked, but many also did not. As one of our first designs, we tried using cling wrap on the outside of the car to make it more aerodynamic. Once we tried it, it was clear that all it did for the car was add weight and mass, although it could have been a good idea it was quite ineffective. Another idea was using erasers as the axles for the car, so that the wheels would stay in place. Even rolling the car on the table showed that the wheels stayed in place, but that they were not straight, and would not be straight unless we put them in perfectly. Even though we made many other mistakes, this one made us start over. To make the mass of the car less, we put the wheels closer to the car, so that there's less skewer involved. The problem with this idea is that the wheels would hit the car, so the car would slow down more and more. The wheels weren't perfectly straight, but they kept the car going in a straight line, and this design made it impossible for the wheels to move freely.

            There may have been many problems, but there was also some success. Instead of using erasers as the axles, which are curved and ineffective; we used cork, which is flat and hard enough to keep the wheel from twisting. Another good idea was using CDs for wheels. That was our idea from the start and we knew it would be good because CDs are thin and smooth, which means less friction. CDs were slightly heavy, but a little extra weight didn't slow the car down too much. Another idea that we had from the start, was using an egg carton. An egg carton is light, aerodynamic, and relatively small. The egg carton was very effective, and did not impede the motion of our car by very much. Overall, during the design process of the car, there were good ideas and bad ideas, but in the end everything worked out okay.

            The most valuable part of the learning process, was dealing with failure to create success. It's hard to try to create something when it has failed a few times, but the lesson of this was to never give up. This project is based on your knowledge of motion, and how to use that in real life. Most people have never been given a project like this yet, which is why it is so difficult. Knowing how to use something in real life is hard, because you don't know how to manipulate real things to create a finished result. Testing different designs, and not knowing which will work and which will not is extremely hard. This project has taught my group how to deal with failing to create success, and to persevere until we do.