There's nothing more fun than racing things at high speed! But how to do it in a safe, semi-controlled, educational manner? One great idea is using CO2 cartridges to propel balsa-wood based vehicles. The CTS (career and technology studies) class in our school had a lot of fun designing, building and racing these vehicles - here's some of the the details!
First of all, let's look at a few of the creative cars. These babies are about a foot long, and the bodies are carved out of raw chunks of balsa. In order for the racing to be fair, wheels and axles are provided for all the cars, so the emphasis is on body design and aerodynamics.
The secret to these cars is all of them must have a cavity in the back in order to accomodate a CO2 cartridge;
Then, all of the cars are equipped with small round hooks on the bottom of the body through which some monofilament is theaded. A long chunk of this fishing line is what keeps the cars on track. All that is then needed is a launcher!
You'll probably have to purchase a launcher - they come in affordable manual models and incredibly expensive electronic versions! The launcher is mounted on a simple wooden frame, and you're ready to go!
So enough yakking, how about seeing some of these in action? If you've got you're QuickTime plugin, check out the cool racing in this video;
Wanna build and race your own cars? Probably the best site on the net is the CO2 Racing site - they've got info on obtaining all the parts, and more details on the actual racing. Enjoy!
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