i have to build a rubber band car for distance.is it better to have 3 or 4 wheels?what is the reason for this, or does it matter?
4 wheels will provide better support for the entire car; 3 wheels can work, but it depends on how you build your cars frame; why not try both and see which works best. you could also experiment with different materials; some may be bulkier; but weigh less; which will help your overall distance
Yes. Cars can be struck by lightning. No. The tires do not protect them. Think about this for a moment, a giant electric spark just jumped through a VERY LARGE distant. What is going to keep it from also jumping the twelve inches or so of air gap from the car to the ground? Besides which the carbon black used in the tires to make them black (you did know that both natural and synthetic rubber are black because of the additives, right?) is very conductive at the voltages involved so they don't do that good a job of insulating the car in the first place. That said the metal of the car might protect you from the lightning by shunting the electricity around you. I say might because the metal is discontinuous and is not a perfect Faraday cage.
Wheels For A Mousetrap Car
three wheels will be the best, because of lesser friction. but the disadvantage is that if the wheel on its own is not positioned exactly in the middle, then the likelyhood of it turning instead of going straight is very high. that goes the same for the other two wheels. four wheels will provide for more stability, but even at that, there is more friction, and if the wheels arent positioned that that one side is an exact mirror of the other, then it will also very likely turn, and you wouldnt want that in a distance mousetrap car.
Three wheels. The reason - you have a limited amount of energy to work with, so to maximize that energy, you must minimize friction (which acts against kinetic energy). Three wheels = less surface area for friction against the ground, compared to four wheels.
