Introduction:
Making a mousetrap car is a
mechanical engineering challenge often used as a competition for
students from 5th grade up to the second year college.
A mousetrap powered car is a
vehicle that uses a mouse trap for a motor and a string to
transmit force. In this method one end of a string is
attached or tied to the arm on the mousetrap and the other
end of the string is wound around an axle.
By winding the string around
the axle the mouse trap's spring is stretched and now you
have your stored energy. As the mousetrap car is released
the mouse trap pulls the string off of the axle causing the
wheels to turn and off the vehicle goes. |
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Some students may prefer to cut all
the woods themselves and design their own car; however, most
students and teachers prefer to get all the parts in a kit and make
changes as they need.
With this project students can explore:
- A simple propulsion method
- Basic gluing/ craft techniques and design concepts
- Concept of stored energy
Items Needed:
Mousetrap Car
Kits usually come with parts, cut to size and ready to use.
The picture in the right shows the materials you usually
find in a mousetrap car kit from MiniScience. Kit includes at least 16
wooden parts cut to size in addition to the mousetrap,
string, rubber bands and 8 brass eyelets.
Materials Checklist:
Before using the kit please verify the content
with the parts in this picture.
In addition to the kit
parts you will need:
- White glue or wood
glue
- Grip Pins
- Sand Paper (Medium
Grit)
- Tape
- Latex Paint
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Teacher Preparation:
During construction of the mousetrap vehicle, students
can experiment and
comprehend methods of power transfer, using glue, sanding, painting . It is up to the teacher to make sure this background information is
provided to students in some manner.
Background
Before invention of gas
engines, cars were pulled by horses or other animals.
Now gas burning engines are the most popular drive in
cars. Inside the engine, the chemical energy stored in
fuels are released in the form of hot gases and convert
to mechanical force in cylinders.
During the history many
other attempts have been made to use other forms of
energy to drive a car. In this experiment we try to use
the energy stored in a spring (Mousetrap String) to
drive a model car.
If you don't
have this kit, you can order it now! It is
available both as a single pack and class pack.
Secure
Online Store
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