— from Ron Claus —
Recently the Jr. High Students at Orcas Christian School worked on a complex project involving pine wood derby cars.
Rather than focus just on the racing competition, the goal was determine what made one vehicle faster than another.
The students were surprised that weight and the position of that weight was the most significant factor affecting speed. Most students expected that the shape of the car or the friction of wheels and axles would be more important. In addition, students found that the race track itself was a significant factor, with the right hand track being faster by about 1/100th of a second.
Of course, the racing competition was of interest, too, and the fastest car was engineered by Tory Plunket with Makai Martinolich coming within 2/100th of a second behind. Sadie Kongorski of Lopez Island had the most beautiful car.
