When Roy saw the post earlier this week all about cars and the different ways which they were powered by their inventors, he became quite interested in how he could create his own toy 'automobile' with household items. The most important thing, according to him, was that it 'go' all on its own. I remembered having a toy car which used wind power to make it move, by blowing up a balloon and letting it propel the car along the ground. So, I suggested Roy try making his own version and we were very successful. So this week Roy creates a balloon powered toy car.
You Will Need:
- A small, lightweight box like a matchbox or a medicine box.
- A piece of firm cardboard longer than your box, but no wider.
- Some paper, pens and pencils to decorate your car with, if you like.
- 2 straight straws and 1 bendy straw.
- Sticky tape
- A gluestick or PVA glue
- 4 bottle tops, each with a hole drilled in the middle (you might need to ask an adult to help you make the holes - a metal skewer or a phillips head screwdriver work well). Anything from water bottle to milk bottle tops are fine, but they need to all be the same size.
- 2 wooden skewers with their pointy ends cut off.
- A balloon (red cars are supposed to go faster, we don't know if the same rule applies for red balloons!)
- A rubber band
Method:
- Cover your box with the paper, like you are wrapping it up as a present.
- If you like, draw windows and a door onto your car, and colour it in. You might also want to colour your cardboard in.
- Stick your box to the top of your piece of cardboard. You want it to be about in the middle so that your car has a bonnet and a boot.If your cardboard is too long, trim it so it looks right.
- Now, turn your car upside down.
- Using sticky tape, stick the 2 straws onto the base of the car, 1 at the front and 1 at the back. Look at the picture below to see how they should be positioned.
- Trim the straws with scissors so that they stick out about 1/2 a centimetre outside the edge of the car.
- Now, slide the skewers through the straws. Trim them so that they are about 1 and a 1/2 centimetres outside the edge of the straws.
- Use the holes in the bottle tops to poke the skewers into the bottle tops to make 'wheels' Look at the photo below to see how they should fit.
- Turn your car up the right way again.
- Fold the bendy straw in half and trim it so that you have the bendy piece left with equal lengths of straw on either side.
- Put one end of the bendy straw into the balloon and use the rubber band to hold it in place.
- Now, sticky-tape the bendy straw to the top of the car, like in the photo below. Make sure the straw sticks out over the back of the car a little bit.
- Use the straw to blow the balloon up and, when you have enough air, pinch the balloon to stop the air escaping.
- Put the car on the ground or a table, let go of the balloon and watch it go!