does anyone have any ideas on how to build a mousetrap powered car that will travel at least five meters?

Question

must be built from scratch, no kits, can only be powered by mousetrap spring, no engines or things like that

Answer 1

Easy.

Put four freely moving wheels on a wooden, conventional mousetrap. You can pin the wheels to the wood and the pins will act as the axles. Made sure the wheels are properly aligned for and aft to ensure the "car" moves freely on them.

Put you car on a flat, smooth surface to minimize friction. Now, set the trap and release it (watch your fingers). The trap will move in a direction opposite to the direction of the snapper when it's released.

If your "car" is on a flat surface and the wheels are relatively easy to turn, it may travel five meters as is. If it falls short of five meters, add some weight to the end of the snapper and try it again. Up to a point, each ounce added to the snapper should make the car coast a bit farther with each snap.

Now, can you tell me why this works? It has to do with the conservation of momentum and the change in momentum equaling force.

Answer 2

Have the mousetrap actuate a bellows that blows a jet of air out the back, so it's a "jet powered car". So long as the nozzle for the bellows is say 3/16 of an inch at minimum diameter, you'll get a couple-second pulse of high velocity air that will propel your car enough to go a few meters. Just make sure you use a low mass frame and wheels, and that the wheels have low rolling resistance! You could use the brad nail and boy scouts Pinewood Derby wheels for this purpose. Good luck!

Answer 3

we had something like that at school. you want big frictionless wheels. cds can work. depending on how powerful the louse trap is you can gear it up to do more rpm but make sure 1)it doesn't slip 2)the mouse trap can handle it from all angles (at some angles the trap doesn't work) minimal friction on all parts is good except the wheel on the ground. tha main problem with most peoples mouse trap cars is they don't go straigth and they go of the side or around in circles.

Answer 4

the only I undergo in techniques that went the furtherest at school had great (I guss around 12") styrofoam wheels that have been shrink to make spokes to make the wheels lighter. The "seize" bar have been prolonged to approximately 18" to make an prolonged fulcrum. In that way, the string that grew to become the axle had to return and forth an prolonged distance. i anticipate they makes use of Balsa wood to make larger the wood physique. It traveled the slowest, yet converted maximum of it ability capability into wheel enegry. i anticipate the over length wheels made it flow straighter. because of the fact the quickest looked like a childrens toy automobile, yet did a curve to the left and lost maximum of its capability heading the incorrect way. reliable success.