Attaching The Eye Screws
In this step, you will prepare the assembly for installing the axles for your mousetrap car. Take two eye screws and insert them at the corners of the rear end of the mousetrap. Place these eye screws at a distance of 8 mm to 1 cm from the respective corners. While inserting the eye screws, take care that the wood does not split in the process. Similarly, screw the remaining two eye screws at the front end of the mousetrap. Align the eye screws properly so that you can slide the rods through them.
Power Transmission To Axle
This motion must be used to turn the car’s axle or wheels. The most common solution is to attach a string to the mouse trap’s arm and then wrap it around an axle. As the bar is released, it pulls on the string, causing the axle to turn.
Tying the string directly to the mousetrap’s bar, however, will not make good use of the energy stored in the spring. The distance between the opened and closed positions of the bar of a mousetrap is typically 10 cm, so this is how much string would be pulled. Wrapped around even a small diameter axle, this amount of string will not create enough revolutions to move the car as far as it might go.
To get around this problem, most mousetrap cars add a lever to the bar so that the lever will pull a much greater length of string and cause the axle to turn many more revolutions.
The Mousetrap Car Project
When we began the project, The MouseTrap Car project, we originally split up the workload between our idealistic engineer, Justin Phan, and our mechanical builder, Beckett Wanamaker. Our engineer was in charge of designing each of the potential sketches and our sketches include three designs.Design 1, the bike, was a mousetrap car based off of the engineering design of a bicycle. The bike would have two main wheels, one in the front and one in the back. The design would also consist of two more
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How To Build A Mousetrap Car Design Secrets Gearin
If you want your car to go the farthest, read Adapt a Mousetrap Car for Distance. The deck-you want to reduce weight, which will reduce rolling friction with the ground. Trim the deck down so it is the size of the mousetrap before using glue to attach the mousetrap to the deck. When gluing down the deck, put it as close to the back wheels. Mousetrap Car Design. The car uses the stored energy of a mousetrap spring to generate forward motion. The car uses simple machines to make. A set mousetrap has a lot of potential energy and when it is released, it converts to kinetic energy. This energy then transfers to the axle which then makes the wheels move Using mouse trap cars to generate linear equations is a great physics application. More importantly it gives the students an opportunity to understand how linear motion occurs and how it applies to things such as driving a car. The Challenge. Students will be required to use their creativity to build a mouse trap car. However, they will need to. The potential that was stored in the mousetrap arm was let go and converted into kinetic energy. The kinetic energy pulled the string which turned the axle and made the wheels move. The momentum that the wheels had kept the car moving even after the mousetrap had snapped and the string was no longer pulling
How To Build A Simple Mousetrap Car
In my AP Physics class we were required to create a mousetrap car that was able to roll 45 feet in order to obtain a 100 test grade. I was quite excited by this challenge, and created a car that rolled a total of 60 feet on the first test run, only taking a total of 3 hours to build! Here, I will be instructing you how to build a successful mousetrap car.
Although the car in the above picture uses a ruler as the frame, I later found it to be quite heavy and slowed the speed of the car. Ill be suggesting different, lightweight material that will make car go at a somewhat faster speed.
Materials:
- Pliers
Instructions to begin building the car:
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How To Build A Mouse Trap Car
Mousetrap Car. Pull off the ends of the pens as well as the ink cartridges., so that the body of the pen is hollow. Make sure all components of the pen are separated. Place one of the pieces of tin foil under a CD . Place the hollow part of the pen vertically in center of the pen The concept most central to us building our mousetrap cars is energy. This stored potential energy will turn into kinetic energy as the mouse-trap car begins to move. So the car that loses energy the quickest will go the least distance. Friction is what slows and stops the car, energy is what moves it..
How To Build A Mousetrap Car For Science Class
I worked for many years as a science teacher in Toronto, Ontario, and now am an occasional teacher working in the local school board.
My eldest son has come home twice now with instructions from a teacher to build a mousetrap car. There is a lot on the internet that provides video and instructions. The following is the result of the modifications made to various designs seen and improvements made from the first try to the most recent version of this vehicle. A warning: mousetraps are delicate instruments of death to the unwary mouse. Even following the instructions given may result in fingers being snapped accidentally and it will hurt. Slow and steady, as they say, wins the race. Following these instructions but working slowly and carefully and having an extra body around for assistance should reduce or eliminate finger or other bodily damage!
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Engineering At Home: Build A Mousetrap Car
Did you know there are simple and fun crafts you can make to share engineering at home with your kids? Building a mousetrap car is one of those simple crafts, and it’s fun for all ages. Building a mousetrap car is so enjoyable that there are events all over the nation for mousetrap car races!
And here I bet you thought that mouse traps were only good for catching mice.
We know engineers like to take things apart to see how they work. They want to teach their kids the same thing. While a simple mousetrap car may not go very far or very fast, it will show you how stored potential energy becomes kinetic energy.
When youre finished with this project, you can try building a more complex mousetrap car by changing a few things. Think about what you could do to design the car to go a longer distance and go faster. Consider the wheel-to-axle ratio, inertia, the rate of energy release, and friction. These areas might help get your creative juices flowing for future improvements to your mousetrap car.
Here are a few other things to consider when creating a mousetrap car for speed and distance.
Physics Mousetrap Car Competition
Event Description: Teams of two or three people will build a mousetrap-powered car designed to travel a maximum distance in a straight line.
Specifications:
Scoring: Each group will have a chance for three trials. Teams may work on their car between trials.
Logistics: Competition location may not be revealed until the actual competition. Teams should prepare for competition on a variety of surfaces.
Reflection: As a team, submit your answers to the following questions:
Scoring:
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What Makes A Mousetrap Car Go Farther
Making a mousetrap car go as far as possible relies on a few guiding design principles. You’ll want to design your car to have a light body, have large rear wheels, and you’ll want to position the mousetrap as close to the front of the car as possible.
Having a light bodied mouse trap car allows for less work to have to be done by the mousetrap getting the car going. It makes the overall car easier to move.
Using large rear wheels allow one rotation of the axle to take the car a much further distance. In other words, a given length of the string from the mousetrap moves the car a greater distance.
The last note is to place your mousetrap as close to the front of the car as possible. This increases the moment arm of the mousetrap. In non-technical terms, this means that the same force from the mousetrap on each snap gets exerted over a longer string pull. When you have more string, it means more rotations of the axles, and thus your car will go further.
Applying Newton ‘s Three Laws Of Motion
be assigned this project that will require you to build a car that is going to be propelled by a mouse trap. It is a certain brand of mouse trap. You have journals check ups every week, the journals will have anywhere to questions about energy and a picture of your project so far. They are actually beneficial, I didn ‘t do all of mine on time which will dock you points so you probably should. My goal for this project was to build a mousetrap car that would travel a total distance of at least 5 meters
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By Step Instructions For Assembling Your Mousetrap Car
1. Drill two shallow holes on each of the short ends of the mousetrap about ½ inch in from each end.
2. Screw in the eye hooks, one into each hole. Make sure the eye hooks are level by placing each short end of the mousetrap against a hard cover book.
Steps 3 and 4
3. Using wire cutters, cut the square snap bar where it attaches to the middle bar to the right of the mouse . This step will give greater leverage and greater potential energy when launching the vehicle.
4. Using pliers, straighten the bar so it is parallel to the long side of the mousetrap.
Step 5
5. Cut the tops of two pop can tabs . Bend the cut tabs in slightly. These bent-in tabs will be used to grip the pencil in step 10.
Steps 6, 7, and 8
6. Fit a pencil through a pop tab, both eye hooks, and the second pop tab. Center the pencil and mark each side of the pencil about 1 to 1½ inches out from each eye hook.
7. Wrap electrical tape carefully around the pencil at the mark. Position the CD hole over the tape periodically and stop wrapping when the CD will fit snugly onto the wrapped tape.
8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 for the other short side of the mousetrap but make sure the interior axle-length of this side is longer than created in Steps 6 and 7.
Step 9
9. Drill a hole through the center of the pencil .
11. Using pliers, straighten the bar from the point it meets the top of the mousetrap towards the inside so it will not interfere with the motion of either wheel.
Step 13
Use Thin And Light Wheels
Lighter wheels have less friction which means they will go farther than heavier wheels. Remember that the more your wheels weigh, the more they will slow the car down, and the more theyll add to friction. To make the thinnest and lightest wheels you can, its advisable to use CDs and DVDs, or, you can use old vinyl records.
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Mousetrap Car : 8 Steps
Use Large Rear Wheels
Because large wheels have a greater rotational inertia, theyre harder to stop rolling once they start. This is their advantage over small wheels. They will accelerate slower but last a lot longer. So if its a distance race youre in, big wheels are definitely the way to go.
The rear wheels are the ones which you should be made larger if youre aiming for distance.The size of front wheels doesnt really matter. If you want a more slick look while still maintaining your goal, definitely opt for small front wheels and large back wheels.
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G1 Physics Mousetrap Car Project
As the semester is approaching an end, all G1 physics students were given a particular task that would draw a meaningful end to the school year the Mousetrap Car Project. As an iconic STEM contest integrating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, the project is very popular worldwide. With only a simple mousetrap as the motive power source, students competed to build a mousetrap car that could travel the furthest distance.
Students were divided into groups of 2 to 4 and were challenged to design a well-developed car model. Teamwork and communication played an essential role in the designing process as the project assesses students ability to cooperate and discuss with each other through researching, comparing, and giving feedback.
The mechanism of a moving mousetrap car is simple: the torsion spring on the mousetrap is initially twisted beyond its equilibrium position. When the trap closes, the strain energy of the spring converts into kinetic energy. Then, by attaching a string to the mousetraps arm and winding it around a shaft, the shaft and the wheel will rotate when the mousetrap lever is loosened and the string is pulled.
This project gives us a break from the regular learning curriculum and focuses on a more practical side of science. It strengthens our understanding of related physics topics and highlights the infinite possible applications of physics in our life.
- Article / Sabrina Wang
Working Of The Mousetrap Car
The mousetrap car works on basic physic laws. In the design, the snapper of the mousetrap is tied with a string the other end of which is tied to the axle at the rear end of the car. The car is then wound in the reverse direction with the help of its hind wheels, much like a pull-back car. This will pull the string, and in turn, open the snapper of the mousetrap. When the jaw trap closes, it pulls the string along with it. The string that is wrapped around the rear rod gets pulled, and in its motions, the rod rotates too. The wheels that are fixed onto the rod also rotate, thus giving the mousetrap car its motion.
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