Balloon Car Report

By
Nagauvan Ayyachamy, Arthur Llyasov,
Srihith Singam, Logan Whitehead

4/15/22
The Problem:

Create a balloon-powered car that can travel from 5-7ft when

released and stay within a grid.
Criteria/Constraints: Our materials are a wooden rod, a balloon, a
drinking straw, cardboard, materials we bring from home, and other
materials from the lab. Some tools we can use are scissors, rulers, tape, a
X-acto knife, a glue gun, and a cutting mat. The balloon car must fit within
an 18’’ by 24’’ starting area and travel 5ft so that the back of the car passes
the 5’ mark without going outside of the grid horizontally.
Scope: Designing and prototyping a balloon car will help us
understand how potential and kinetic energy are utilized for balloon
propulsion. Above all else, we will use the engineering design process to
better develop our knowledge of how engineers create.

Research

What did we learn?

Several of these articles clarified the science that goes into a balloon
car. Balloon cars use potential energy in the form of compressed air inside
a balloon when you blow into it through a straw. When it is released and the
air escapes, through Newton’s laws, kinetic energy will propel the
balloon-powered car into the other direction. Balloon cars can be built in
many different ways but lightweight ones usually have the most
advantages.

Brainstorming and Sketch

Idea 1:
Popsicle Stick Balloon Car - In this idea, a group of tough cut up
popsicle sticks form the entire structural integrity of this car. The point is to
make the car very lightweight so it would be propelled much farther. The
straw will be attached to the middle stick. The rectangles shown in the
picture are the wheels.

Idea 2:
Boxy Balloon Car - This balloon car is basically a box. The box is
made of cardboard and the axles go through the sides of the box (with
straws). The balloon takes up the majority of the space inside the box and
is connected to a straw that goes through the back wall of the car.

Idea 3:
Hybrid Compressed Air Can Balloon Car - This idea would use a
compressed air can pointing behind the air. The balloon would be blown up
and a weight would be put in place to activate the compressed air can.
When the weight is dropped and the straw is released, both the balloon and
compressed air can propel the car forward.

Idea 4:
Hybrid Motor Balloon Car - A very lightweight body with 2 or 4 electric
motors adding additional power to the wheels of the vehicle that the balloon
may not supply. Essentially a hybrid vehicle. The battery packs attached to
the motors will add weight to the vehicle and push it forward. Racing stripes
with tape will add extra aesthetics as well. This was designed since a
balloon is a very inconsistent form of power. If it is blown up incorrectly, the
entire test may be affected. Motors will add an extra form of support to the
car and will ensure that if the balloon fails, the car will still move forward.
Evaluation of Best Design

We will use a decision matrix to determine our best solution by seeing

how effectively each idea meets important criterias or constraints. We will
sum up all of the values to see which is the best idea.

Criteria Weight Idea 1 Idea 2 Idea 3 Idea 4

Aesthetics 1-10 5 3 4 6
Mass 1-10 8 6 4 7
Size 1-5 4 2 3 4
Plausibility 1-10 5 7 3 6
of Creation

Ease of 1-5 4 4 3 5
material
sourcing
Theoretical 1-5 4 3 4 5
Distance (up
to
interpretatio
n).

Total: 6-45 30 25 21 33

Best Idea: The best idea is idea 4 as it is the best design based on
our criteria. The motors assisting the balloon means it has the highest
theoretical distance and we already had motors on us as well as wood so
the materials are the easiest to get. Our knowledge of motors and balloon
cars leads us to knowing that it is a plausible idea. It is also very good
looking for aesthetics and is small and lightweight so it should go far and
easily meet size requirements.

Prototype - Onshape Views/Sketches:

Naga:
Srihith:
In this scenario, the car is flipped upside down so you can see the
motors spinning the wheels. Dimensions are in inches. As you can see,
when the car is flipped back right side up, two battery packs are on the top
and on the bottom, and all of the motors are on the bottom. Wires
oversimplify connection between batteries and motors.
Logan:
Arthur:

Picture and Description of Final Design:

 The final design of our motorized car is centered around a long, thin
wooden rectangular case with four motors attracted to the bottom. These
four motors have thin stick-outs that rotate to move four wheels (two larger
and two smaller) attached to them. In the middle, both on the top and on
the bottom, there are two battery packs (containing two batteries) each
attached through rubber bands. There are 8 batteries in total. Two wires
connect each motor to its respective battery pack to charge it. In the end,
because a balloon needed to be included (but not necessarily contribute a
large percentage of the car’s momentum), we attached a tiny balloon and
straw when we tested. It did contribute to the car’s momentum but not by
much.

Balloon Car Testing and Results:

 After we created our first prototype, we tested it in the CHARGE
hallway. It exceeded our expectations and was able to go very far in a
straight line. The motors propelled it even further after the balloon ran out
of air. But still, we made minor changes to the arrangement of the batteries
and motors before testing for real. Once we did the actual test, our car
successfully went 5 ft and fully passed the finish line, staying in the grid
throughout the test. So Mr.Schleisman gave us full credit for our test and
we went to the revisions for future design stage.

Revisions for Future Design:

There are many things we could change to make our car even better.
First of all, our car didn’t always go very straight. While it did go straight
enough to not go outside of the grid during the official test, the farther it
goes, the more off of its starting direction it goes. So we could take off and
reattach the motors (with the wheels connected to them) so that they are
more straight and aligned properly than before.
In addition, the balloon did not provide as much propulsion partially
because it was in a bad location for thrust. Originally, we didn’t care as
much about this since the motors would provide more propulsion than the
balloon. But in the future, to have the balloon make up more of the thrust
we could orient it better and maybe even make the straw smaller so that
the propulsion lasts longer.

Engineering Design Summary:

First, we defined our problem (listed above) and we clarified the

criteria (requirements we needed to accomplish) and constraints
(restrictions on what we had to do) before we went through with
brainstorming. In the brainstorming, each team member made and rough
sketched their own idea, and then we used a design matrix to determine
the best one.
 Luckily, we already had a lot of the materials needed to create our
hybrid car. We decided to use wood as a base and then gathered our
materials, some from home, some from class, and others from the
CHARGE engineering lab.
At first, our only goal for the car was to make it move without it being
too reliable on the balloon. In our first prototype, we accomplished this by
using a rear-wheel drive configuration, with the two front wheels being
attached to a wheel and axle. After some testing, we did not like how slow
this made the car accelerate, so we all decided that the best thing to do
was to make the car four-wheel drive. This is what we wanted to do from
the very beginning, however, calibrating the direction of each wheel was
tricky so we originally abandoned the idea. However, after deeming it
necessary, we went through the process of calibration and adjustment until
we finally had a four-wheel drive configuration which moved straight
enough.
Most of the tests were very successful, with the car traveling well over
20 ft before we picked it up. During one test however, the balloon got
caught in the wheel and popped. This did not affect the car very much as
we specifically included motors since we knew that a balloon would not be
a very reliable source of thrust. But we got a new balloon and added it back
on for our next test.
Eventually we moved on to our actual test, overviewed by
Mr.Schleisman. Our car successfully traveled 5 ft without leaving the grid
which was a success. Afterwards, we discussed options for future redesign
and thought on what we learned.
Overall, this project was a great asset to developing our skills in using
the engineering design process. We defined our problem, explored the
research, searched for solutions, illustrated the best idea, gave our
prototype a try, and looked if we needed any changes. In addition, we
learned more about potential and kinetic energy and how it relates to a
balloon-powered car.
References

Logan Whitehead:

Mcvetta, A. (2021, May 13). Beginner's Guide to Propulsion: Balloon

Rocket Car (Easy) - activity. NASA.

https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/BGP/Ashlie/BalloonRocketCar_e

asy.html

Finio, B. (2022, March 3). Balloon-Powered Car Challenge. Science

Buddies.

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/Ph

ys_p099/physics/balloon-powered-car-challenge

Science World. (2020, June 23). Balloon-powered car. Science World.

https://www.scienceworld.ca/resource/balloon-powered-car/

Srihith Singam:

Finio, B. (2017, May 5). Build a Balloon-Powered Car. SCIENTIFIC

AMERICAN.

www.scientificamerican.com/article/build-a-balloon-powered-car/

Home Science Tools. (2022, March 23). How to Make a Balloon Car:

Balloon Rocket Car Science Project + Video. HOME SCIENCE

 TOOLS.

https://www.homesciencetools.com/article/balloon-rocket-car-project/

(2022, March 23). Balloon Car Racers. The Royal Institution - Science

Lives Here.

www.rigb.org/learning/activities-and-resources/balloon-car-racers/

Arthur Ilyasov:

Bechet, Rachel, et al. (2018). BALLOON POWERED CAR. Deakin

University, SELL Schools.

https://blogs.deakin.edu.au/asell-for-schools-vic/wp-content/uploads/s

ites/160/2018/09/BALLOON-CAR-TEACHER.pdf.

Balloon HQ. (1999, January 9). Balloon Car Contest at NASA's Jet

Propulsion Laboratory. NASA Balloon Car Contest.

https://www.balloonhq.com/balloon_car/1.html

Finio, Ben. ( 2017, May 5 ). Build a balloon-powered car. Scientific

American.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/build-a-balloon-powered-ca

r/

Naga Ayyachamy:
Buddies, S. (2017, May 18). Build a balloon-powered car. Scientific

American. Retrieved March 23, 2022, from

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/build-a-balloon-powered-ca

r/

Build. Build | 4-Wheel Balloon Car. DESIGN SQUAD GLOBAL | PBS KIDS.

(2013, February). Retrieved March 23, 2022, from

https://pbskids.org/designsquad/build/4-wheel-balloon-car/

Build a balloon car: Stem activity. Science Buddies. (n.d.). Retrieved March

23, 2022, from

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/stem-activities/balloon-car