Projects Home

Beakmobil

What You'll Need:

  • 2 Paper Plates
  • Toilet Paper Tube
  • Lifesaver Candy
  • 1 Long Stick (like a chopstick)
  • 1 Short Stick (like a Popsicle stick)
  • Tape
  • Rubber Band
Boomarang

  1. Punch a hole in the centers of you 2 plates.
  2. Pull the rubber band through the toilet paper tube.
  3. Pull it through the hole you just punched in 1 of the plates.
  4. Place the short stick inside the rubber-band loop and tape the short stick down to the plate.
  5. Tape the tube up against the first plate.
  6. Thread the rubber band through the second plate.
  7. Put it through the Lifesaver, and then place the longer stick through the loop.  The stick must reach out past the edge of the plate on 1 edge only.
  8. Tape the tube to the second plate.
  9. Rotate the longer stick to wind up the rubber band.
  10. Place on ground with the long stick reaching out forward.
  11. Let go and stand back.


So What is Learned:

     Before you wind up the rubber band, your Beakmobil has neither kinetic nor potential energy.  But when you wind up the rubber band, you store your finger's kinetic energy.  Held still, the Beakmobil will then have potential energy.  When you let it go, the potential energy will convert into kinetic energy - which is the energy of motion or moving things.  On a flat playground, you Beakmobil can go up to 300 yards.