Final mousetrap vehicle post

Things that went well:Our mousetrap vehicle was very consistent. The vehicle was also successful in the drag race. Our vehicle ended up being the second fastest car out of six vehicles. The car was very easy to put together and reassemble. If we needed to we could take our wheels off of its axels and adjust the car easier. At the starting line our car had a smooth start. It didnt spin out or stall when the trap was set off.

Future Recommendations: If you want your vehicle to keep rolling far make sure that your axels have room to rotate. You dont want the axels or the wheels to rub on the chassis and create more friciton because it will slow your vehicle down. When you are designing your vehicle try to have bigger wheels at the back and smaller wheels at the front so that there is less area to cover. The bigger the wheels the less the axels had to rotate. If your wheels are to small the axels will have to rotate more to get a far distance. Try to make your chassis as light as possible so that there isnt large mass that has to be moved. Make sure that you have a sturdy vehicle that wont break when the trap snaps.

Last Mousetrap Vehicle Post

Our group with our car. Photo by Josh

A top view of our car at the starting line. Photo by Josh.

Our mousetrap vehicle went 7.19 meters. That was the farthest it went out of all three of its runs. In the drag race our vehicle ended up in second. 

If i wanted to modify our vehicle I would change how we attached the axles. The axles looked like they were bent and I noticed that when the wheels moved the axles would rub on the plastic tubing. I would add some type of lubricant to help the wheels rotate on the axle easier. 

If I wanted to build a completely new car I would build a car with only two wheels so that It would not have as much friction as a car would with four or three wheels. 

To make our vehicle work better to go a little bit farther I should have paid more attention to the axles.  

Mousetrap Vehicle tests

Our vehicle is made of CD's, Records, toy truck wheels, plastic pipe, Duct tape, a mouse trap and fishing line. The back Wheels are made of records attached to the toy truck wheels and the front wheels are made of CD's attached to toy truck wheels. The chassis is made of plastic pipe. The back wheels rotate very well and don't spin our when the trap is set off. The front wheels are somewhat wobbly because of the axle. I think we need to straighten out the front axle.
Our vehicle fades to the right slowly when it is moving. To fix this I think we need to work on the front of the vehicle to straighten it out.
The mousetrap vehicle we made when around 6 meters every time we started it. The farthest it went was 7 meters.
To improve our vehicles performance we need to fix the front axle by bending the axle to make it straight, and center the front of the chassis.

This is our mousetrap vehicle.

Our car before we set the trap off.

Mouse Trap vehicle Compnents

I think some of the most important things needed for a mouse trap vehicle are the wheels, the axle and what you have for friction on your wheels. I think the wheels must be bigger than bottle caps but smaller than a dinner plate. The size of a CD would be fine. The axle cant be to long or to short. The axle must be round so it can move in a circular movement. I think that using balloons on your wheels or rubber bands will work to create friction so the vehicle moves. 

Uploading Images

1. I liked building the tower the best because it was more exciting and it was a hands on activity.

2. Our completed tower didn't match our original design at all. We used a different method of rolling the paper into a cylinder shape. At the start we had cone shapes that didn't work very well so we switched to the cylinders.

3. I would incorporate the layers into our tower to help with support. Our tower didn't have any layers. The layers would have helped to support our tower and make it stronger.

Left to right: Kylie, Josh, Florencia    Photo Credit: Agnessa

                                                     

Our tower holding 1kg

Number 1

This is my first! Today we started to comment on other blogs.