What is the fastest mousetrap car design?
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.
Should a mousetrap car be heavy or light?
Lighter mousetrap vehicles will require less energy at the start and can use longer lever arms for more pulling distance. Always use lightweight components when building a mousetrap vehicle. bonus tip: lightweight mousetrap vehicles require less pulling force off the start.
What are the best wheels for a mousetrap car?
CDs. CDs make one of the cheapest and easiest to use tires for a mouse trap car. The type of CD doesn’t matter, and you can even use DVDs if you like. However, you should make sure you don’t want to use the CD anymore.
How is a mousetrap car designed to go straight?
The basic concept behind the adjustable steering on our Basic II kit is to build one set of axles on a swivel that can be turned separately from the main frame of the vehicle. Small adjustments can be made to the alignment of the axles by turning the swivel in order to make sure the mousetrap racer travels straight.
Does the length of a mousetrap car matter?
Vehicle weight is an important factor to consider reducing if your mousetrap vehicle is not traveling far enough. The greater your mousetrap vehicle weighs, the shorter the distance it will cover and the speed it will travel. This consequence is due to the limited energy within the mousetrap.
What is the best wood for a mousetrap car?
Balsa wood, pine, or bass wood are excellent choices although balsa wood is somewhat brittle and hard to drill holes into without ripping. Other materials can also be used for making a light weight strong and stiff frame. These include Styrofoam, corrugated cardboard, plastics, aluminum and brass tubing.
What is the most important thing to keep in mind when designing a mousetrap car?
Traction is a major issue when it comes to building a super fast speed-trap racer. If there is not enough traction between the drive wheels and the floor then your mousetrap racer will not be able to accelerate as designed. Use drive wheels that provide a lot of traction on the floor.
How do you make a mousetrap car stop at a certain distance?
Setting the braking system is simple and easy: just place the vehicle at the finish line with the wing nut in the lock position, roll the vehicle back to the start line and the wing nut is set to the exact starting position.
Is there a pulley in a mousetrap car?
Introduction: Mousetrap Car The car uses physics and engineering concepts such as pulleys, levers, and springs to convert potential energy to kinetic energy which moves the car along.
What does the lever arm do in a mousetrap car?
Changing the length of a mouse trap’s snapper (or lever arm) is how you control a mousetrap vehicle’s acceleration and/or travel distance. Different lengths of lever arms can be used to increase and/or decrease the pulling force and change the amount of string that can be pulled off the drive axle.
What is the best length for a mousetrap car?
Max Length – 45 cm. Max Width – 20 cm. Height – 20 cm. Min ground clearance – 4 cm.
How do you make a mousetrap car stronger?
To make your mousetrap car go further make sure to reverse the wheels and then wind it up backwards so that it gets adjusted to go straighter to. * If the string is just wrapped around the axle, the car may barely move. Adding a larger drive hub can improve pulling power.
How do you make a mousetrap car go forward and backwards?
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.
Are big wheels better for a mousetrap car?
Wheels and Axles Larger drive wheels will have a greater travel distance per each turn compared to smaller drive wheel. It would make sense to use a super huge drive wheel so for each turn of this massive drive wheel the mousetrap vehicle will travel an incredible distance.
What materials are good for mousetrap car?
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.
Why are CDs good for mousetrap cars?
Why do so many mousetrap cars use CD/DVD for wheels? Because CDs and DVDs are some of the best wheels you will ever find for building a long distance mousetrap powered vehicle. CD/DVD wheels can slice through the air with very little air resistance and they have very little rotational inertia.
Is weight important in a mousetrap car?
The greater your mousetrap vehicle weighs, the shorter the distance it will cover and the speed it will travel. This consequence is due to the limited energy within the mousetrap.
How far can a mousetrap car go?
The length of the string is about 25″. Therefore the string can be wrapped around the dowel 25/0.785 = About 31.8 times. So the minimum distance travelled will be the number of times the string can wrap around the dowel multiplied by the circumference of the wheels, which is 31.8 x 14.92 = 474.456″, or about 39.5ft!
How does gravity affect a mousetrap car?
The force of gravity remains unchanged for all angles. The difference between the two forces causes the force down the ramp to increase. The greater the angle required to move the car, the more friction there will be acting against the car’s motion.
What are some features of a mousetrap car made for long distance?
Long-Distance Racer: Most top long-distance mousetrap racers will have large drive wheels, small drive axles, and long lever arms. Long-Distance Racers will be slow moving so as to decrease friction as much as possible and extend the pulling distance of the mouse trap.