Balloon Racers - Mark 2

Well, we had another race meet for those inventors whose racers had friction issues. This time we went over to the Parish Hall because it has a wooden floor. We went with a set of expectations and came away with a lot of surprises.

We thought that with a wooden floor that all our racers would go a lot faster and a lot further. Well that wasn't always the case. Some of the 'fastest' racers from our first race didn't go as far or as fast.

Here are some of our ideas as to why the racers didn't perform as we expected.

1. Although the carpet in our room created friction that meant some racers didn't move very far, the ones that worked well there didn't seem to get the same traction on the wooden floor.

2. Some of our balloons had been blown up several times and we think that they were suffering from 'balloon fatigue' . We also think that they were heavier because they contained more moisture than a balloon that had only been blown up once.

3. We also figured out that the shapes of some racers were more 'aerodynamic' and so went faster because there was less resistance.