Have you ever wanted to make a hot wheels run faster?

Well my physics class decided to try to get the speed that the car can get and we also tried to see how the what the acceleration of the car was.

Step 1: Materials

Long piece of ply wood (we used a ply wood with the distance of 5 meters)
A Hot Wheels car (should not have a lot of friction)
Long piece of wire (to hold enough inertia coming from the rocket)
A model rocket engine
A 12 Volt car battery
An ignition cable
Safety Glasses
Whatever you feel that would hold the car and the engine together
We also used some vernier photogates to be able to measure the speed and acceleration of the engine and the car also the velocity (with this we also measured the average speed and the instantaneous speed)
Two metal plates to be able to stop the car (to have a force to be able to stop the car)
You might need to reinforce your plates (to have balanced forces

Step 2: Safety

Do not stay infront of the track
Do not think you can catch the rocket
Stay at a safe distance from the rocket
Do not touch the battery and then connect the rocket because you will kill yourself

Step 3: Get Your Hot Wheels Car

Get a normal hot wheels car that runs straight so you don't actually burn anything with its speed

Step 4: Design the Track

I recomend using a piece of ply wood with two metal pieces at each end to be able to stop the car and so it does not burn the track. Also you might want to to build a rail so that it does not fly out. With the speed that you will get. Also I would putting a 10 to 12 gauge of wire but becareful with what you use because it might burn and everything will blow up. Put the length of the wire with the length of your track.

Step 5: Start Setting Up Your Car

Your rocket should be connected extremely good with the car so it does not go out flying and tries to kill you like in the following video.
On the other hand you will need to drill a hole throught the windshields to be able to make it as a guide to have another way for the car to not fly off.

Step 6: Testing the Track

You really can not test the track with out almost dying. Also you might need more than 5 rocket engines.

Step 7: How to Start the Rocket

Make sure that everything is set if it goes off by any chance so it does not fly off.
But just connect the ignition cables first at the rocket then at the battery we did a count down to make it fun.

Step 8: Doing Try and Error Sessions

We have suffered through a lot of try and error sessions which have taken us more that a month working on the track to be able to gather our information and trying to have the rockets not kill us by blasting off in our faces.

Car Chances:
Turns out that the best way for us to be able to capture the data was that if you put a binder clip on the top of the rocket it will be more stable and the data will be more reliable. Also tapping down the rocket is the best way to go on it if you do not want to burn yourself.

Step 9: The Final Product

Our final product of the car looked with a hole drilled through the windshields with the rocket engine taped over the car and with some metal wire around it to be able to hold it down.
The track turns out that you do not really have to make walls on the sides but you leave it open just have enough barriers at the end of them so that they can stop the car.

Step 10: Data

Here is our data that we received on Tuesday November 3 of 2009 during our lunch period. I may have to say it was a pretty happy moment when you mostly spend the whole month on the project and you could not collect any data. So just to conclude this project is a fun thing to do with your friends and a great way to have fun with your family.