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Mousetrap Car

Mousetrap Car. Jessica Linus Engineering Foundations of Technology II February 16,2013 Mrs. Fitzpatrick. Define the Problem.

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Mousetrap Car

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  1. Mousetrap Car Jessica Linus Engineering Foundations of Technology II February 16,2013 Mrs. Fitzpatrick

  2. Define the Problem • Students must figure out the most efficient way to design a unique vehicle ran by a simple mouse trap. Students must use the mouse trap to power their vehicles. To use a mouse trap to power vehicle, attach a string to the arm of the trap and wind the other end around the axle of your wheels. Students must keep track of everything you do in class. Students must record this in their engineering journals. This is to prove that they did their own work. Students will also be required to do research about mouse trap cars.

  3. Brainstorm • Initially I had no idea where to start in terms of construction but I was able to map out key directives. The mouse trap car had to be either built for speed or distance. • I was also able to map out the materials I would use: Wood, balloons, CD’s, stoppers, eye-hooks and rods.

  4. Reasearch • The first website that I went to was www.instructables.com/id/Mouse-Trap-car/, where I learned the basic plan of what I was going to do to the car. I saw that the car that they made on this website had eye screws attached to the mouse trap to hold the axle, which I thought was a good idea. I also saw that the car on this site used pens for axles, and had CDs as wheels. I then went to http://www.mousetrap-cars.com/construction_tips.htm, where I found out that bigger wheels make the car go farther, so I decided to use CDs instead of toy car wheels.. I knew that the less weight you have the better, so I decided doing this to the wheels would be a good idea. The car on this site also had rubber on the wheels to create more traction, so I decided that I would try putting some sort of latex on my wheels to give them more traction. Lastly, I went to http://www.mousetrap-cars.com/dpf.html, where I found out that to reach maximum distance, you should position the mousetrap farther away from the rear axle, and have a longer arm.

  5. Identifying Criteria/Constraints • We had to keep a Journal documenting our progress • The mousetrap car had to be powered by a mouse trap • The car also had to travel a specific distance

  6. Explore Possibilities

  7. Selecting and Approach • I decided to make a mouse trap car that was built for distance rather than for speed

  8. Making a model

  9. Testing

  10. Refining • My mousetrap car didn’t go relatively fast but It did reach the first required distance. However It didn’t reach the second. It stopped at about 5 ft or so. My next challenge would have been to accelerate speed.

  11. Creating

  12. Results • Although my mousetrap car didn’t reach the desirable 10 ft. It did manage to cover 5 ft. If I could do this mouse trap over I wouldn’t use a base because the base I used which was made of wood made the car too heavy. I would just attach the wheels directly to the car and I would have also used pens instead of the metal rod as my axle because using the metal rod didn’t also for the string to slide against it easily thus powering the car. If I hadn’t used it the car would have went faster,

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