The Race of Surfaces: How does Surface type affects the RC Car Speed?

Grade:

6

Teacher:

Norman Dejan

My project, “The Race Surfaces: How Does Surface Type Affect the RC Car Speed?”, investigates how different surfaces change the speed of a remote-control car by studying the force of friction. I chose this project because I enjoy cars and wanted to understand how real vehicles are affected by the roads they drive on. In my experiment, I tested tile, concrete, and carpet and measured how long the RC car took to travel two meters. My results showed that the car traveled fastest on tile, second fastest on concrete, and slowest on carpet, proving that smoother surfaces with less friction allow objects to move faster. Overall, my conclusion is that surface type directly affects speed because friction resists motion. This project is important because understanding friction helps engineers design safer roads, better tires, and more efficient vehicles, connecting a simple RC car experiment to real-world physics and transportation.

Project presentation

Lab journal excerpts

Research paper