Littleton Academy third graders in Liz Graziano’s class participated in a science experiment on Friday, September 9 to explore the concept of friction. 

The science block started out with Mrs. Graziano leading a review of what third graders already know about friction: a lot of friction makes you slow down; a little bit of friction makes you go fast! Students then had time to draft their hypotheses before breaking out into groups of three or four to conduct their experiment.

Materials for each group consisted of a Hot Wheels car, a short piece of track, a textbook to prop one end of the track on to create a ramp (don’t worry: all groups had the same textbook in order to not introduce an additional variable), three different surfaces for the car to travel across, and a ruler to measure the car’s distance over each surface. The three surfaces were foil, sandpaper, and felt.

The room quickly became a flurry of activity as students were taking turns in various roles: setting up the ramp, releasing the car, and measuring the distance. Several tests were conducted on each surface with students diligently recording their results and observations.

Which surface do YOU think would allow the car to travel the farthest distance? In other words, which surface would generate the least amount of friction acting upon the Hot Wheels car?

The answer might surprise you!