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What is a mousetrap car and how does it work?
A mousetrap car is a model car made from simple materials that is powered by a mousetrap. A mousetrap car can be made from cardboard or balsa wood with CD’s for wheels and axles of wood or brass tubing. Power to drive the wheels is provided by a mousetrap to which a wand and string is attached to the snap arm.
What do you need for a mousetrap car?
What You Need: Wooden snap-back mousetrap. Duct tape. 4 eye hooks. Wooden dowel that fits inside the eye hooks. Heavy cardboard. Large and small rubber bands. Foam board (usually found at a craft store) String.
What force does a mousetrap car use?
Friction is a force that acts against the motion of all moving objects. Energy is required to overcome friction and keep an object moving. Mousetrap cars start with a limited supply of energy. This energy is used to overcome friction and propel the vehicle.
What makes a good mousetrap car?
If you want to optimize for speed, you’ll want to design a car that exerts as much force/rotation as possible on the wheels as fast as possible. This will likely mean a shorter pull rod on the mousetrap and wheels that have a lot of grip so they don’t spin in place when they are rotated quickly.
Should a mousetrap car be heavy or light?
Above all, your car should be light. The smaller the mass of your car, the better — every gram or milligram you can shave off of your car’s frame is a little further your mousetrap will be able to push your car.
What makes a mousetrap car fast?
A speedy mousetrap car will have smaller wheels (faster acceleration), a shorter lever arm (increased torque, but smaller travel distance), a larger axle (increased acceleration) and will generally be smaller to decrease air resistance.
How far do mousetrap cars go?
The average distance the rattap car went was 18.6875ft and the average distance the mousetrap car went was 25.5ft.
What is the fastest mousetrap car?
The Speed-Trap Racer is the fastest mousetrap powered racer anywhere and was designed after Doc Fizzix’s own record-setting mousetrap racer that traveled 5 meters in 1.2 seconds.
Why does a mousetrap car stop?
The lock-nut braking system uses a wing-nut that travels along a threaded axle. As the threaded axle turns a wing nut travels along the threaded axle until it lock tight against the frame of the vehicle, or the axle, causing the vehicle to come to an instant stop.
Can a mouse trap break your finger?
A mouse trap might not break your finger, but it’ll hurt. Rat traps, though, which are about 4 times larger and stronger than mouse traps and usually have serrated edges, could break your finger. If they don’t break your finger, you could still have severe bruising or pinched nerves.
How does a mousetrap car lose energy?
In a perfect universe a mousetrap vehicle would roll forever once the potential energy is changed into kinetic energy. But in our universe there is friction and in order to overcome friction your mousetrap car will have to do work. Energy is not destroyed by this process but it is being converted into heat and sound.
How far did the world record mousetrap car go?
Description: The secret to Doc Fizzix’s world record setting mousetrap distance racer that traveled over 182 meters was it’s unique pulley system. This is the same pulley set-up that was used on Doc Fizzix’s world record setting mousetrap distance car.
What is an axle hook on a mousetrap car?
An important part of a mousetrap vehicles propulsion system is the axle hook. If the string does not properly release from the drive axle the string will rewind around the drive axle and cause the mousetrap car to come to an instant stop.
How do you make a mousetrap car better?
Mousetrap cars will go farther if the spring has more distance from the back wheels. Create traction on the wheels. Add rubber bands, or tape around the wheels to give them better traction. The better the wheels can grip the floor, the farther the mousetrap car will go.
Is weight important in a mousetrap car?
Reduce the most friction you can because the more friction the more energy is lost in propelling the car. Mass should also be taken into account, the more the car weighs the more energy from the mousetrap spring will be used so it’ll be best to make the car light weight.
What class lever is a mousetrap car?
When you set the mousetrap, you are using a second-class lever. The load is the arm of the spring that is being pushed down to compress the spring. The effort force is your finger on the end of the snapper arm, and the fulcrum is the pivot point in the middle of the trap.
How long should the lever arm be on a mousetrap car for distance?
For maximum speed, position the mousetrap 2 1/4 inches from the drive axle and cut the lever arm to a length of 4 1/4 inches. The lever arm can be cut using a dremel tool or by using a fine tooth hobby saw. The lever arm should always be “just” long enough to reach the drive axle or performance will be compromised.
How do mousetrap cars reduce friction?
Try to have a minimum gap of 1/8 inch between the frame and any spacers (or wheels) in order to decrease any rubbing friction. Use thrust washers and graphite powder between spacers (or wheels) and the frame to help reduce the rubbing friction.
How do you back wind a mousetrap car?
To make a reversing mousetrap car go forward and then come back you will need to know how to “back-wind” the string. Back-winding the string it a technique where you first wind the string around the axle in one direction and then rewind the string in the opposite direction.
Who invented mouse trap cars?
Hiram Maxim.
How do you slow down a mouse trap?
If instead the mousetrap vehicle is shins it’s wheels when placed on the ground, or traveling two fast causing it to have to much friction, you may have to increase the length of the mouse trap’s lever arm and reposition the mouse trap away from the drive axle in order to slow the vehicle down and decrease the pulling Jan 20, 2012.
