Essay On Mousetrap Car

Personal Write Up The whole point of this project was to build something that the class could apply their knowledge on the things Mr.Kunz has taught us these past couple units. Along with being able to apply their knowledge, teams had to be able to build a decent mousetrap car to get the best grade possible. In order to get a car to go the maximum distance Taylor and Daniel came up with three different main variables: lever arm length; to see how much leverage gets the car the farthest, car length; to see if a small car will steer worse, wheel size; to see if having a bigger wheel fairs better. In order to test these variables the team decided to build two different cars. Daniel would build a lego car with small wheels and a long lever arm. And Taylor would build a record car with a small lever arm. These two cars turned out fair, but one had a better way of reacting to the forces on it. …show more content…
Because of their width, they were able to use less force to propel them along the carpet. The large wheels were able to glide over the carpet with little ease, due to the low levels of friction that were acted upon them. Although there was friction, the car was able to deal with is much better than the lego car. Because of how smooth everything was put together the gearing of the record car was very smooth, allowing for a very good efficiency. On the record car the mouse trap was put on the center axle, and as the spring pulled the lever arm the axle would spin, but the mousetrap would spin with it. With everything being able to spin the car could move freely, and