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When winding the string around the drive axle make sure NOT to put any slack in the string. The string should be wound tight as it winds around the drive axle or the mousetrap racer well have a jerky motion as the string unwinds. Always wind the string using the force of the mouse trap, do not help lift the lever arm during the winding process (except maybe at the start of the wind and then only just to get things going.
Department of Mechanical Engineering to host Project Fair on April 15 - Ohio University
Department of Mechanical Engineering to host Project Fair on April 15.
Posted: Wed, 05 Apr 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
How to Make a Long Distance Mousetrap Car – DIY
Be sure the dowel is pointing forward away from the notch in the cardboard and that the dowel also lines up with the center of the notch when it is pulled back. Attach a piece of string to the end of the ¼ inch dowel with a zip tie. Simply put, they convert the energy of the mousetrap's spring into rotational energy that gets delivered to one set of wheels. A rod connected to the trap bar (the piece normally used to snap a mouse's neck) pulls on a long piece of string wound around one of the axles.
Introduction: 3D Printed Mouse-trap Cars
With all of the modifications you can do to them, there’s no end to the kinds of things you can create. There are several different ways you can make your mousetrap car. If you want to go for something more complex, there are plenty of tutorials online to give you ideas on what materials to use and how to modify your trap to get the most speed out of it. You can also check out some of the other interesting mousetrap car designs here.
Step 9: The Science and Math of the Mousetrap Car
As you plan your project think about all the points of friction in your design and look for ways to decrease the friction at these points. Because the number of moving components increases the friction look for ways to simplify your design as much as possible. Take a mousetrap and remove the pieces that make up the release trigger (bait holder and wire bail, see picture). Use two or three 4” zip ties to secure the ¼ inch dowel to the snap arm and reinforce with tape or hot glue. Glue the mousetrap in place towards the front on the topside of the car with hot glue.
Mousetrap Cars
Make sure the closed arm is facing toward the small wheels as shown. Cut 3 sections of straw to fit on the body of the car like in the illustration. Be sure the straws are parallel to each other and the leading (short) edge of the cardboard. Take the 2 pieces of cardboard (about 4”x10”) and cut a rectangular notch (about 1”x2“) in the center of the short side of each piece of cardboard. Then place the two pieces of cardboard on top of each other and tape the edges together to make one double thick piece of cardboard.
Power Output
The gearing of a mousetrap car determines the acceleration and the travel distance. Gearing can be adjusted to increase and/or decrease the pulling force, the torque, the travel distance, and the acceleration of a mousetrap powered vehicle. With all mousetrap cars the gearing is controlled by the length of the lever arm and/or the ratio of the drive axle and wheel set-up. Most record-setting long distance mousetrap vehicles are geared so that they have the smallest possible energy consumption rate or power output in order to maximize the pulling distance. Smaller power outputs produce less wasted energy and have greater efficiency. The amount of energy released by using a short lever arm or a long lever arm is the same but the length of the lever arm will determine the rate at which the energy is consumed called power output.
Slip the loop over the end of the zip tie on the axle and wind in the opposite direction that you want the mousetrap car to travel. For a mousetrap car that will go a long distance the lever arm needs to be longer to pull more line that is wrapped around the driving axle. From these calculations it can be easily seen that the amount of force available rapidly diminishes as the length of the lever arm increases.
More Physics Projects:
A heavy mousetrap vehicle will required more pulling force than a lighter mousetrap vehicle in order to achieve an equal acceleration. 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. Inertia is the resistance that an object has to a change in its state of motion, the more inertia an object has the more force that will be required to change is state of motion off the start line. How does rotational inertia play into the design of a good distance-traveling mousetrap car?
Giant mouse traps at St. Edmund High - EuniceToday.com
Giant mouse traps at St. Edmund High.
Posted: Wed, 08 Dec 2021 08:00:00 GMT [source]
On the other end add a spacer and roll another piece of tape on the end. Finish the first axle by placing the second wheel on the tape. We are now going to start to prepare and assemble all of our components to assemble the 3D printed mousetrap car. However, this one will be built using a mouse trap, 4 eye hooks, 6 balloons, 2 Bic pens (the smooth kind), 2 tops from pop cans, some string, 4 CDs/DVDs (expendable ones).
The direction should be the same in which you wrapped the balloon and wedge it on the pen. Point it as straight as possible and stable in connection with the trap. Do the same thing with the other end of the pen for your mouse trap car. Before sharing these instructions you should know that I’m not a science teacher.
Step 4Approximately, anticipate the center of one of those Bic pens and make a hole on that point. An easy way to do this is to screw the eye hook in the pen and taking it out. They drew up plans, modified them with the teacher’s help, and then last weekend we began constructing cars. They needed to do the work but I stood on the sidelines to help and guide them.
Tom Tremont, chief designer, describes how his studio still works as a "dedicated studio away from the mothership" and is the first to work on new platforms. He thinks that the "New Edge" look coined by Ford is only a form of vocabulary. "It's more of a crisp look, and the whole world's doing that now." Apart from the weather, another strong influence that helps the California design studios is the proximity of the entertainment industry. "The weather and different scenery nearby provides recreational pursuits all year round. The beach, the snow, they all provide inspiration," Mr. Matano says.
You can make a rip in the paper towel tube so that it looks like the mousetrap is running over it or put some fake cheese on top of it for decoration. The length of this piece will depend on how much space there is on the table you want to use for your car. It should be long enough to hold a couple of mousetraps and a few inches of space between them. Hub – this the center of the wheel which attaches to the axle. The hub should hold the axle in the exact center of the wheel and the sides of the hub should be exactly 90 degrees to the axle otherwise the wheel will wobble.
We watched YouTube video after YouTube video together and read tutorials on Instructables. It was about 8 pm Sunday night when we finished our second car. They had to turn in their prototype the next morning for evaluation. The car would only spin in circles or flip over and couldn’t move in a straight line. We hoped the teacher would have some suggestions on how to improve it. This simple science experiment can be fine-tuned to perfection.
Now you need to attach the wheels to your car and make sure that everything works how it should. Some people use a hot glue gun or super glue for this, but be careful not to hurt yourself with either one. You can also use wax instead of something like Elmer’s glue if you don’t want something with an extra stronghold.
You’ll need two dowels for each axle, so make sure you cut them accordingly. It is always important to understand the relationships between variables but never over exaggerate any one concept. The ideal size for an ultra big wheel on a long distance mousetrap racer seams to be somewhere between 10 and 15 inches. Understanding the physics of the mousetrap car should help in designing a more efficient operating mousetrap car.
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