Cars and Blocks Measuring Experiment

This activity is a variation on our Launching Cars Measuring Practice. This Measuring Experiment with Cars and blocks is equally fun. It’s another quick play idea that fits perfectly with our latest Challenge and Discover theme: Fun with Rulers.

Measuring Experiment with Cars and Blocks

This activity adds blocks and a tape measure to Hot Wheels tracks with a launcher. Playing with cars and launching them down a track is one of my son’s current favorite activities. He recently posed this question: How far can a car push a block? We set up an experiment to test the answer.

Materials {Amazon affiliate links are used below}:

• Hot Wheels Angry Birds Track Set {or any track set with a launcher}
• Cloth Tape Measure {I prefer using cloth over metal.}
• Blocks {we used these wooden blocks from Melissa & Doug}

Set up your track with a launcher at the end. Add a car and a block. Place the zero mark on the tape measure at the end of the car. {You want to keep the measuring points consistent.}

Launch your car. Some of our cars knocked off the single block, but some of our cars traveled far. Measure how far the car traveled. Look at the number closest to the end of the car. Record the distance traveled.

Reset with two blocks and launch again.

Continue adding blocks {we went up to 5 small blocks} and recording distances traveled.

Repeat with different cars. Do different cars push the blocks farther?

What happens if you repeat the launch with the same car and same number of blocks? Do you get consistent results? {We didn’t. Our results varied with each launch.}

More Questions to Ask:

• How far did the car push one block? Two blocks? Three blocks? etc…
• Do cars travel a farther distance with more blocks or with less blocks?
• Which car traveled the farthest?
• Can you create a data table and graph your results?

 Are you inspired to join our fun with rulers yet?

Grab your rulers and introduce measuring to your kids! Link up your fun with rulers on the challenge page now until the end of March. You can also share photos of your activities on our Facebook page or in the Science for Kids community on Google+.

Linking up here.