This Homemade Racer Actually Works and It's Amazing Made for parents and teachers
Hey, welcome back to Kids Fun Science! Today, we're going to show you **how to make** an awesome wind-up racer in this exciting **science experiment**. It's a fantastic **do it yourself** project perfect for **science for kids** to explore basic **stem** principles of energy transfer. Watch it zoom across the floor!
Chapters 0:08 Experiment 0:31 What you need 0:46 how to set it up 3:23 Wind it up
Email me if you are interested in buying the parts for this kit at elementarysciencenight @gmail.com Let me know what US state you are located in so I can tell you shipping.
This is a classroom STEM activity sheet called “Wind Up Racer: Exploring energy conversion with a twist!”
Activity type • Hands‑on engineering/physics activity using a simple machine “wind up racer” built from a cylinder, rubber band, straw, and paperclip. • Focuses on energy conversion, especially how twisting a rubber band stores elastic potential energy and then converts it to kinetic energy as the device rolls. • Used as an inquiry experiment where students vary the number of twists and measure how far or how long the device moves.
Science Behind it Turning the coffee stir stick, which acts as a lever, will wind up the rubber band and store elastic potential energy. When the rubber band is allowed to unwind, the potential energy (stored energy) is converted into kinetic energy (energy of motion). The more twists in the rubber band, the more potential energy is stored, resulting in more kinetic energy being available to move the Wind Up Racer through a greater distance.
If distance and time data are measured, these data can be graphed to reveal patterns in relation to the number of twists in the rubber band. For example, a simple graph can be made with the number of twists along the x-axis (independent variable) and the distance traveled along the y-axis (dependent variable). Similarly, one can graph the time of each traveled distance vs the number of twists. In addition to this graphical analysis, it is possible to calculate the average speed of the Wind Up Racer by taking the average distance traveled and dividing that value by the average time measured for each number of twists in the rubber band.
Welcome back to Kids Fun Science. My
name is Ken. Today's experiment is the
windup racer. Exploring how energy
changes from one form to another. So,
I'm just going to start with the
experiment right here. You can see there
it goes. It's just self going. You have
to wind up the the coffee stir up. Uh I
did about 30 40 times. Look at that. It
goes a good 10 or 12 feet until it
actually hit the door. So, please
comment below on how far yours went um
when you got yours going.
What you need for this experiment is two
plastic lids, uh, 3 to 6 in corlated
cardboard sheet, uh, rubber bands, uh, a
couple beads, uh, a thin straw like a
coffee stir, um, a little block foam
block or something to block the paper
clip, and two paper clips. The first
thing you're going to do is take the two
rubber bands and you're going to, uh,
interlock them together like this. So,
you kind of flip them over and make them
so they connect together just like that.
how you pull it around and they should
come all the way tight there. Then the
second step is going to be able to take
your beads. You kind of pinch up the
rubber band and put both beads onto the
um rubber band at the end. So it ends up
putting the last bead right there. And
you get both beads on. And you should
have a little space that you're going to
take your um your coffee stir stir uh
stir and put it right in there. and then
pull it tight so it holds in there right
nice nice and tight just like that.
Next, you're going to take one of your
plastic sheets and make sure the the rim
is facing in. And then put the rubber
band right through the holes uh of the
plastic um lid there and pull it all the
way through and then turn it upside
down. Uh just like this here. Right
there is what it looks like. And then
down. And then you're going to take your
coralated cardboard um and you're going
to just go on the inside track. Make
sure that rubber bands in the middle,
not on the track. Um you probably have
to overlap this a little bit. Um uh you
don't want to have it exactly the right
size. Let it just overlap a little bit.
Uh there. And then you're going to grab
the rubber band that's inside and you're
going to put it um through the other
plastic lid. So when you get that there
and you pull the lid up, make sure the
the grooves are facing towards the the
cardboard and push it through the other
hole. You kind of have to kind of put it
inside. And then once you get a hold of
the band uh going through is you want to
pinch it a little bit so it gets a good
pull through. Then you're able to pop it
right on and pull that all the way up
until the knot. So that's what it looks
like. But now you're going to pull this
up rubber band up until the knot comes
all the way through. And then you're
going to take a paper clip and you're
going to slide it through uh the the
rubber band uh so it stays in place just
like this
uh right there. And now you've got it in
place and it's nice and tight.
Now you can just take the foam uh piece
uh there. It's got a little sticky tape
on it. You take it off, put it down. Uh
that's just to stop the the paper clip
from circling around. You could also
just hot glue that paper clip down. um
if you don't have a foam piece or
something to hold it in place. And this
is what it looks like right there.
Now you're ready for the experiment. So,
you're just going to start winding up uh
your coffee stir. I did about 30 or 40.
Um and then as you saw, I didn't have
enough space. It just kept going. My my
room's not long enough, but uh give it a
good number. It's just going to twist
the rubber band around. And then you're
ready to let it go. If you like this
experiment, please remember to like and
subscribe. it does help my channel. And
next I'm going to tell you the science
behind it. The science behind this is
turning the straw which acts like a
lever will wind up the rubber band and
store elastic potential energy. Uh when
the rubber band is allowed to unwind the
potential energy store energy is
converted into kinetic energy energy of
motion.
