Mousetrap Car Building Basics: A mousetrap powered car is a vehicle that is powered by the energy of a wound-up mousetrap's spring. The most basic design is to tie one end of a string to the tip of a mousetrap's snapper arm and then the other end of the string has a loop that is designed to "catch" a hook that is glued to a drive axle. Once the loop is placed over the axle hook, the string is wound around the drive axle by turning the wheels in the opposite direction to the vehicle intended motion. As the string is wound around the axle by the turning of the wheels, the snapper's lever arm is pulled closer to the drive axle causing the mousetrap's spring to "wind-up" and store energy. When the drive wheels are released, the string is pulled off the drive axle by the mousetrap causing the wheels to rotate.
Words of Wisdom: Your grade is directly proportional to the time you spend on this project. It is extremely difficult to earn a "C" or better without adequate research, design, testing and redesign. A large portion of your grade depends on your car's performance; make sure your car will perform when the time comes. That means design it, build it, test it, re-design it, re-test it and repeat this process as many times as necessary to achieve your goals.
This assignment was adapted from Mr. Shepherd's Mousetrap Car Project, http://www.piketon.k12.oh.us/Downloads/Mousetrap%20Car%20Project2.pdf.
Other resources can be found here:
http://cpphysics.homestead.com/mousetrap.html
Other helpful hints:
-look up youtube videos
-use google
making the cars is kind of fun but it takes forever to make. I hope my car passes.
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