How We Did It

Austin and I searched the internet for ideas for making our mousetrap car. Next, we asked some of our Robotics Club friends for their takes on designs and techniques for the car. They suggested using cork and metal hangers for the axel and lever arm. We also thought we would need traction for the wheels. Wide rubber bands rescued from bundles of asparagus served to increase the friction. We used these compilations to come up with our design; a long balsa body with four wheels with cork as a hub to attach the axel to the wheel and a metal hanger for the axel. We then used a bamboo shoot for the lever arm that is attached to the mousetrap. This allowed our car to travel a large distance because the string was pulled by the shoot. The string was tied to and wrapped around the axel. This in turn was attached to the mousetrap causing a large tension force. We built the car in the design of the model off the internet. The modification we did make to that design was to cut out a hole in the rear of the car above the axel.