A personal diversion from weather and climate. Readers may recall my earlier reference to this:
I’m proud to say that team Watts did pretty well today: William won first place in his den, and second overall in the pack where he competed with cars made by boys older than him.
I think the ears made the difference. Too much wind loading.
Watch the race below:
This is the final den race, the PokéMobile is of course the bright yellow one.
Here’s the final pack race. William is pounding the floor with anticipation, rooting his car on.
The PokéMobile takes a close second place.
Our secret: properly aligned and polished axles, plus graphite saturation and working it into the axle surface so that it stayed on during the race.
My son was beaming. So was daddy.
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That looks way more fun than sitting around with a bunch of geeks discussing the state of the climate science. 🙂
Congrats! Brings back great memories of pinewood derby races with both my sons, roughly 20 years ago.
Congratulations, Anthony !
My sons have their derby in about three weeks. Just got their car kit today. Maybe I’ll copy your design . . .! 🙂 🙂
Congratulations to you both! Keep building the memories.
Yep it’s the ears, too much parasite drag, in aviation terms, I made the mistake of
putting a ski rack on my old Geo Metro and it wouldn’t to 45mph with a headwind….
Don’t remove them, streamline, give him a more aggressive look too!
I miss those days…
Anthony,
Congratulations to your son.
I noted he was in the same track (of the four parallel tracks) for the two races shown in the videos.
Too bad we don’t have all the time data and car IDs from all the heats and finals. We could do some statistical analysis to see if we could determine whether any of the 4 tracks are the faster.
John
Wonder if it would be possible to completely avoid metal-to-metal (or solid-to-solid) contact between the body and the axles by using strong permanent magnets. And they DO sell some strong miniature permanent magnets at low prices these days.
So close to first! Could you tell your son congratulations from a commenter! And to you too Anthony!
This is the kind of day that I’m sure he will remember that dad laid off the web site and spent special time with him. And I’m sure it felt better for you to be with him than seeing the usual negative comments—or even the good comments—in the threads!
I think I still have my old pinewood car around, but it wasn’t nearly as impressive. I’m pretty sure I made it all by myself, but I think I’d have a lot more fun doing it as an adult.
In 50 years they’ll certainly have pinewood robot battles.
Go, team!
Thanks. That brings back very fond memories of doing this with my 2 sons. Now it’s real cars, which cost a lot more.
As you can tell, you’ve brought up a lot of happy memories for some of us fathers of former Cub Scouts.
Ed
http://lowerfriction.com/hbn.php
This is something you might be interested in. Hex-boron nitride is ultra slippery.
REPLY: Interesting, but graphite is the only lubricant allowed. Thanks though – Anthony
Naturally, you meant, maybe your boys will copy Anthony’s design, right?
Great job William and awesome looking car … and while you Dad may object to the ears due to wind loading, they are major style points in my opinion! 😉
Thanks for sharing Anthony. I went through this a few years ago – some pics at http://www.komar.org/cub-scouts/2008_03_15_pinewood_derby/ – tons of funs for the kids … and the Dads! 😉
Congratulations and Mega-Watts!
Congrats!
My boys and I enjoy pineblock cars now too. (12 and 8)
Was William setting up sympathetic vibrations? This could stand some deep scientific study and modeling…
Many thanks for a pleasant Sunday afternoon interlude down here in olde Melbourne towne, Anthony and William.
Lots of fun memories, thanks
wobble says at January 29, 2011 at 8:33 pm – – –
You’re right – it would have been better said ” . .I’ll copy it for THEM to build . . .”
. . .though they do get some of Dad’s help in some of the cutting of the block to start the car shape . . .
Anthony,
This post brought back memories and a smile to my face. In 3 years of competition, my son and I never placed better than middle-of -the-pack for speed. But every year,we got first prize for “Appearance”. Our cars couldn’t get out of their own way, buy they sure looked neat. I was proud of our achievements. My son, back then, not so much
Now, 20years later, we look back over a beer and we laugh about it. And by the way,he still has all 3 of those cars.
Gotta love the parental bragging. Good to see you are getting that family time Watts. Don’t blink, because he’ll be asking for the car keys when you open your eyes.
My 6th grader was in the spelling bee against a bunch of 8th graders, and she would have won 2nd place and moved on to the next round, but she was so excited to get an easy word that she misspelled it. It was mortifying to see, but I was proud nonetheless, and we turned that into a good opportunity. She understands how pressure can screw you up now. And that is a lesson that is just invaluable.
Way to go!
Forward and onward! Now that the rules-of-race are out of the way you two can fit him with a hyper-rubber-band propulsion system. Now that’s some fun!
Poké’s Green Monster! (uh oh.. did I say green, well, pick a better name)
Speaking of too much wind loading….
Here is some more wind loading related to Anthony….
“Anthony intensifies to category two cyclone”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/01/30/3125068.htm?section=justin
This storm must be linked somehow to AGW and Anthony via the carbon footprint of that Pine-wood Derby… since the storm is named “Anthony”, it must be your fault,
clearly the science is settled on this. You exhaled too much CO2 in your excitement today… kidding of course.
Congratulations to you and your son on your wins today. They never name storms after me. Ken.
HA! Thanks for posting this. Brings back wonderful memories.
I guess only some things are going downhill!