Mouse Trap Cars

Mousetrap Cars Contest

extra-informations

Grade 9 students successfully completed their physics projects and joined an interesting race after lessons on Tuesday, 22nd of January. They were challenged to build a car which is powered only by a mouse trap. They are expected to test physical effects of a big wheel, getting better traction, decreasing friction, small mass, storing potential energy etc . After they finished their projects, the distance moved and the time taken was carefully measured and average speed of each was calculated. Then the best cars of each class raced in the big final. Razvan Ciobanu was the winner with his car named 'Lightning' with 15 m of a new high school record!

Posted by ADMIN 22.01.2008 .

Competition objectives

Students are encouraged to compete either individually or as part of a team to determine the best design.

Distance

In this competition mousetrap cars are designed to travel the furthest distance possible. Typically mousetrap cars built for distance are characterized by having large drive wheels in order to maximize the distance the car travels from every rotation of the wheel. The lever arms attached to the mousetrap also tends to be longer in order to maximize the distance the effort arm travels. Also, in order to maximize distance you must decrease the mass of your wheels, possibly by cutting out the centers.

Speed

A mousetrap competition may also consist of a course of a set distance. The cars are designed to complete the course in the least amount of time. The drive wheels of mousetrap cars built for speed tend to be smaller than those of distance cars to reduce the rotational inertia of the wheel. The lever arm is also larger to increase the mechanical advantage of the lever, thereby increasing the force the lever arm applies to the axle.

Posted by ADMIN 23.05.2007