Mousetrap cars are powered by the spring of the mousetrap. Troubleshooting is included for students that run into difficulty with their mousetrap car. A mousetrap car is a small vehicle whose only source of motive power is a mousetrap. Place the stock mousetrap car on the starting line. Anyway, i truly recommend this book if you have a physics project to build a car powered by a standard mouse trap.
To determine the effect that mass has on the performance of a mouse trap car. This project explores competition and decision making through the mousetrap car. Whether it is for a classroom project or an intramural competition, students are challenged with the task of creating a body design around the trap. Build a mousetrap car for your science project brighthub. Along the way, youll learn about the principles of. Approved by rosie revere engineer, book by andrea beaty. Of course, all that potential energy can be put to other uses besides getting rid of mice. The goal of our combined lessons is to teach students to use the design process to test a prototype in order to develop the best solution to a problem. You will build an originally designed vehicle powered solely by the energy of one standardsized mousetrap. A very popular method of propulsion is to tie one end of a string to the arm or an extended lever arm on the mousetrap and the other end to the axle. Went online to search up types of mousetrap cars tried to build one with three wheels but was unbalanced found a youtube video on how to build a mousetrap 1 mouse.
A firstclass lever is like a teetertotter at the park. I saw that the car that they made on this website had eye screws attached to the mouse trap to hold the axle, which i thought was a good idea. The mouse trap may not be modified in any way except to attach it to your car. A very popular method of propulsion is to tie one end of a string to the arm or an. Some areas of physics my group incorporated into our car are friction, spring force, wheelaxel ratio, rotational inertia, and a lever arm.
We included a lever arm into our mousetrap car and extended it by quite a bit to extend the cars distance. Mousetrap vehicle car kits bulk pack of 12 kits project kits for building a mousetrap car create race compete using your own fast mousetrap car great. You could work either by yourself or with a partner, but your partner had. How to make mousetrap car at home very simple mousetrap life hack. The effect of racing surface on performance of a mouse trap car. Therefore, when the lever snaps with the mousetrap, the string unwinds, which spins the axle and makes the car. A mousetrap car uses the stored energy of a mousetrap spring to generate forward motion. Build a mousetrap car with materials commonly found around the home. Mousetrap cars are often used in physics or other physical science classes to help students build problemsolving skills, develop spatial awareness, learn to budget time, and practice cooperative behavior. Cte online lesson planner using the mousetrap car to. Teams of two or three people will build a mousetrappowered car designed to travel a maximum. Builders have reported achieving distances of close more than 300 feet 91. The lever is attached to a string that is wound around the back axle of the car.
Skillshare is a community marketplace for users to teach and learn from project based, online and local classes on a wide variety of subjects. How to make a car from mousetrap catapult car youtube. A set mousetrap is full of potential energy which, when released, is converted to kinetic motion energy. In other words, the goal is to maximize the distance traveled on both these surfaces. Teaching physics with a massive game of mouse trap. Mousetrap car project high school physics and ap physics. The most basic design is to tie one end of a string to the tip of a mousetraps snapper arm and then the other end of the string has a loop that is designed to catch a hook that is glued to a drive axle. Will you measure from the starting line to the rear of the car. These lessons will tie into companion lessons by the cte physics teacher.
See more ideas about mouse traps, mousetrap car, car. Tucker meijer kyle mcginnis stephen lencioni period 2 mr. It probably wont go very far or fast, but you can see how stored, potential energy is converted into kinetic energy. If youre looking for a neat school project, an activity thats more handson than video games or a way to put those old victorbrand traps to work on a peaceful purpose, try building a mousetrappowered car.
Mousetrap racers complete builders manual doc fizzix. The pivot point is called the fulcrum, the person being lifted is the load, and the person on the other end is the effort force. It makes a great 4h or class project that provides an opportunity to learn some basic physics and engineering skills. We were just assigned a project in physics to build and design a mouse trap car powered solely by the potential energy of a standars mouse trap. As always, a good design and quality construction are contributing factors toward success.
When the mousetrap snaps back, the lever causes a release of energy. This physics project was the culmination of the students unit on mechanics. Mouse trap car project part 1 asking the question and defining the problem the problems. The culmination of this project is a race day where students race their chosen designs, present their data justifying their choices and market their cars to sponsors based on their performance and aesthetics. Mousetrap cars physics project short version catholic. The car must be powered by a single spring mouse trap. Body balsawood, bass wood, styrofoam, plastic, aluminum, etc. Children can create these simple but effective projects with objects around the home. Some of our goals for the project included getting the car to travel a certain distance. Work and power work the work of the car can be determined by multiplying its force times the distance.
Made for the visual learner, this book is filled with tons of images and. One of my sons friends stayed over yesterday and mentioned in passing hed been assigned to make a mouse trap car for school. In the first part of the project, our car was able to travel beyond the required 1. Mousetrap car building basics a mousetrap powered car is a vehicle that is powered by the energy of a woundup mouse trap s spring. Earth shattering secrets for building winning mousetrap powered cars, boats, racers, and other mouse trap powered vehicles. Mousetrap car, rubber band car, stem projects for kids, stem science. Variations include the use of multiple traps, or very big rat traps, for added power. Applying the physics behind our powerful devices engineering, our traps are being used as motors for miniature race cars. A mousetrap makes use of a simple machine called a lever. Newtons second law states that the acceleration of an.
Students will use what they have learned of newtons three laws to design and built a car that maximizes the effect of the mousetrap spring, minimize the overall mass to increase force, and reduce as much internal frication as possible. The purpose of this project was to build a car that was powered only by a victor standardsized mouse trap. Mousetrap car project agreementmousetrap car project agreement. Yav table of contents introduction design and construction procedure operation results conclusion appendixpictures introduction in this project, we wanted to design a car that would be propelled by a mousetrap. This project is designed to give you the opportunity to apply several principles of physics. Newtons first law states that every material object continues in its state of rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless it is compelled to change that state by forces acting on it. Release the car and measure the total distance traveled by the car. Mousetrap cars physics project short version catholic memorial duration. The performance requirements of this project require a mousetrap powered car to travel a minimum of eight meters. In the mousetrap cars guidedinquiry kit for physical science and physics, become a real world engineer, while investigating the various parts of a mousetrap car to determine each parts effect on the car s performance.
The purpose of this project is to build a mouse tap car and apply it to newtons laws of motion. The main focus is distance, and so that is what i am aiming for. Selfpropelled cars are an example of physics, demonstrating kinetic energy. In competitions, the goal of the mousetrap car is to achieve as much forward motion as possible, on a flat surface andor on an inclined surface. A mouse trap car is a vehicle that is powered by the energy that can be stored in a wound up mouse trap spring. The car is supposed to be designed for long distance runs, not for speed. Troubleshooting is included for students that run into difficulty with their mousetrap car construction. The effect of friction on performance of a mouse trap car. A mousetrap powered car is a vehicle that is powered by the energy of a woundup mouse trap s spring. Mousetrap car plans the secrets to success doc fizzix.
This is the first of a series of 4 lessons designed to apply calculus to the design and improvement of a mouse trap car. For all of my physics projects, building a balsa wood brigde, a mouse trap car ect. Winners of a mousetrap racer competition know that physics is their friend. You can build a selfpowered car science project with objects such as a mouse trap or a balloon. Provided are stepbystep instructions on how to build a mousetrap car. The tips section offers students information that will allow them to build advanced mousetrap cars. Engineer mark rober and teacher al doc fizzix balmer explain the physics of these primitive race cars that get their power solely from the energy stored in a mousetraps spring. The science behind a mousetrap car by jonathan wong on prezi. The design of your car allowed that energy to be transferred to the axle to make the wheels turn.
The movement of the mousetrap car shows how a lot of physics concepts are related to the project and how we can change the way our car moves. A mousetrap car is a fun and easy science project for students. Buy products related to mousetrap car products and see what customers say about mousetrap car products on free delivery possible on eligible purchases. Mousetrap car physics a mousetrap car uses the stored energy of a mousetrap spring to generate forward motion. The most basic design is to tie one end of a string to the tip of a mousetraps. He scrapped his initial attempt a year in but returned to the project in 1998, this time renting a workspace in a reclaimed boatbuilding. See more ideas about mouse traps, mousetrap car and stem projects.
In the projects below, youll use a mousetrap as a power source for a catapult and a car. When youre finished with this project, you can try building a more complex car with the suggestions listed at the end of the article. Hey everyone, my name is brandon and i have been assigned a mouse trap car project for my highschool engineering class. While there are several other good mousetrap car instructables and videos to be found out there and many car designs that travel faster and farther, i like these plans for their simplicity and ability to adapt and modify. Mousetrap car, summer classes, cars, physics, homeschool, engineering. Videos of mousetrap powered cars and racers mouse trap vehicle and project records. Engineering a better mousetrap car stem integrated project. I thought about how i had lots of fun making those way back and decided to make one out of scraps off my desk and documen. I have my basic design laid out, as i will attach two. Find a girl physics projects, stem projects, mousetrap car, rat traps, new.
368 405 101 1505 323 579 737 1395 348 926 1279 1230 229 1003 940 1397 1048 499 702 981 1536 321 950 1423 599 630 566 846 488 1225 143 1269 583 959 1030 922 81 1357 1247