Mousetrap Car Research Paper

When constructing the car, the goal was to make the car as sturdy as possible in order for the car to travel a great distance in a short amount of time. To do this, we researched various ways to create a mousetrap car. Additionally, we incorporated our own ideas to enhance the construction after trial and error. First, our team gathered all of the necessary materials that we would need to construct the car. These materials included one mousetrap, cardboard pieces, six balloons, four eye hooks, 2 smooth pens, string, and four small records. However, there were a few steps that had to be taken before connecting all of the materials together. The pens had to be stripped to be made hollow. We pulled the front and back out of the pen to get a hollow cylinder. Then, we cut the balloons in order to apply them to the wheels. We cut the top and bottom of the balloons to stretch them over the two …show more content…
The mousetrap is the power source. The wheels, which are CD’s will have no traction if not for the balloons being wrapped around them. With the wheels being CD’s they are thin and therefore more aerodynamic and will help the velocity and speed of the car. Then with the pens being hollowed out, it helps with the air and power from the mousetrap to flow through the pen which is attached to the wheels and helps the energy be sent to the wheels and thus, making the car move forward. When designing the car, we chose to use eye hooks because tape and glue would help with the sturdiness and help keep the mousetrap and the wheels connected without breaking. With the eye hooks though, we needed to determine if the eye hooks were too tight or too loose. If they happened to be too loose then the car would come apart. On the other hand if the eye hooks was too tight then air would not be allowed to get through and help the car move. With all those adjustments made to the materials we collected, the finished project should be able to