Making your slow buggy go slow

The constant velocity buggy lab is a common inquiry lab for introducing velocity. There are many ways ¹Here are a few methods teachers use: Mine, Tiffany Taylor, Randall Physics, teachbrianteach, Frank Noschese, etc.↓ this lab is run, but most teachers have slow and fast buggies. They key to getting one of the buggies to go slow is to use only one battery in it, then running a shunt to fill the gap of the missing battery.

Which buggies go fast and which go slow is up to you, but I prefer to have one color be the fast one so when the class talks about it we can ask “what color was your buggy that went fast?” I think most teachers have the red car go fast, because we all know the stereotype of fast drivers in red cars…

There are many ways to make the shunt for the missing battery, but I’ve often found problems with one method or another. This year, while prepping my buggies, I noticed some packing foam that was just about the width of a battery’s diameter. I cut the foam into pieces that matched the length of a battery, then wrapped foil from one end to the other.

Tada! A shunt that doesn’t come lose when the students giggle the car, and stays in place when you change the battery.

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  Here are a few methods teachers use: Mine, Tiffany Taylor, Randall Physics, teachbrianteach, Frank Noschese, etc. ↩︎