LIGHTSPEED

Team LIGHTSPEED March 17 (St. Patties' Day!!!) **So far in our group, we have:

Made half a car. It was not measuring up to our standards so we decided to start over. Below are various pictures of our car and other related materials. so we put on new wheels and they work well. we still need to do some finishing up on our axels. our can and our solar panel have not been added to our car yet.

our front wheel is on our car now. we used three wheels for our car instead of four. our can is attached to the car by glue and we will attach our solar panel to the can with velcro. we will then be able to rotate the solar panel so that it can get energy from the sun wherever the sun is.

We are now attaching the solar panel to the body of car. we put on pieces of wood approximately 3 inches tall. we will put the solar panel on those two pieces of wood. here are some pictures of what we have been doing today. we are using a new can and attaching it using tape instead of velcro. here are some pictures of our car. we hooked everything up and tried to make it go. it ran but when we set it on the ground there was too much friction and it would not move. Thomas said that is we got put on a bigger gear than there would be less friction and it would work. we have to take apart and change the gears on the axles. it will probably take a long time to fix the gears but if it works it will pay off.
 * We made a new almond-shaped body for the car, as well as new, smaller wheels and smoother axles. The car body is about 12 inches long, and has a width of about 5 1/2 inches at the widest point.
 * Our car's frame is made out of lightweight foam core.
 * We chose this so our car would be lighter, and therefore faster.
 * Our wheels are black plastic with ridges around the edge, and about 11/2 inches diameter.
 * We are using straws for our bearing.
 * Our new axles are made of wood, because they will not bend as easily as our previous axles, which were metal.