The challenge to the teams is to build a vehicle
capable of carrying 25 gallons of water. The catch os that they will have
to drive their vehicles over a rough course without spilling any of the
water. They will have 5 minutes to complete the course otherwise, the barrel
will be counted as empty. In the second race, the teams will have the chance
to drive the other teams vehicle in an attempt to lose as much water as
possible. If they fail to finish in 5 minutes or less, the barrel will
be counted as full. The team who has lost the least water in two runs advance.
Hackett wants his team to build a somewhat wacky truck. They will mount a swinging arm to the back of the truck with a counterweight. The swinging motion (centrifugal force) should keep the water in the barrel half. To turn the arm, a scooter's rear tire will turn a second wheel that turns the arm (a friction drive). In order for this to work, it's going to have to be pretty well balanced, which might prove tough to do with scrap metals.
Colonel Dick is building a more straight-forward
truck. The bucket will hang off of an arm that will use springs as shock
dampeners. To keep the bucket stable he wants to add a large gyroscope
underneath it. A large spinning disc, powered by a lawnmower engine, should
keep the bucket in place. This isn't overly complicated but to get all
of the components and to get the assembled and working might be the real
challenge.
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