Rubber Band Car Designs

This rubber band powered car is an awesome engineering activity for your next stem project time.

Rubber band car designs.

This project uses superglue hence adult supervision required. The goal is simple. Choose your car s body. Pbs kids design squad build rubber band car.

For our design we used a mustard bottle. Check out the bonus fun and try to beat the fastest rubber band car in guinness world records. When you turn the axle on the car you are giving the rubber band potential energy which is stored energy. Loop the loose end of the rubber band over the catch.

The basic setup is a lightweight body for the car wheels axles and a rubber band to provide energy for motion. Here are the hosts of design squad nation judy lee and adam vollmer doing the rubber band car challenge. Once you know the basics of building a rubber band car you can experiment with you own design and construction. I personally did not have any rubber bands so my son made me a quick one out of his rainbow loom bands.

Make sure to check out our lego rubber band car design too. Instead of cardboard the cars can use a variety of lightweight materials for the chassis such as lego balsa wood light plastic container cereal box or foam board. Plastic bottle caps toy wheels like those of k nex film canister caps can also serve as the wheels. Another tip would be to use a little playdough to pack in the caps.

Are the gears whirring away inside your head yet. These rubber band car designs encourage children to ask questions about transfer of energy observe analyze and share their findings. Some designs use cardboard for wheels some use cds. Rubber band cars are a fun way to learn about motion propulsion and energy.

Build a car that goes really. How could you measure the fuel economy for different designs. Now that your car is built attach the rubber band to the front structure support. There are lots of creative rubber band car ideas but you definitely need a rubber band and a way to wind it up.

When the rubber band unwinds and the axle spins it transforms the potential stored energy into kinetic energy or motion. Wooden dowels threaded through straws. For example how many feet can your car travel per. Other designs of rubber band cars.

The following steps can be used to make a successful rubber band car but experiment with different objects for the wheels and the car body to find the design that can go the farthest. How to make a rubber band car easily with basic tools and material found at home. This will keep the car tires from just spinning when the car is ready.