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What happens when you put a car on a ramp? It will roll down to the ground. An invisible force is pulling it down: gravity .
Susan and Taylor each made a gravity-powered car. Gravity has the same amount of pull on all of the cars in a race down a ramp. Each kid is using science to make his or her car go faster.
Susan is using weight . She has glued some pennies to her car to make it heavier. But its boxy shape has drag which slows it down.
“Racers start your engines!” is something you normally hear at an automobile race like NASCAR or the Indy 500.
But, what if a car had no engine? How would it move? Could it still be a race car?
Taylor has engineered his car to have less drag . When a car moves through the air, it causes friction . Friction causes drag, a force that slows a
he E in STEM is for engineering . Engineers are changing the world all of the time. They dream up creative, practical solutions and work with other smart, inspiring people to invent, design, and create things that matter. Be an engineer and create your own Gravity Racer! Here are instructions to get you started.
moving object. Streamlined and smooth objects have less drag than jagged or flat ones.
cereal box 4 plastic bottle caps 2 bamboo skewers
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2 straws hot glue tape ❏ ❏ ❏ (continued on next page)
ruler paint or markers scissors
© Vicki Whiting April 2025
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