Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Reflection on your Mousetrap Car (30 pts)

 
Explain the design choices you made for your mousetrap car, the IMA of the wheel/axle, the IMA of the mousetrap setup, how far your car went (less than 5, less than 10, greater than 10), what you learned, and what you would change if you did it again.  This should be between 3 and 5 paragraphs, and should show the dimensions you measured....

7 comments:

Unknown said...

I used popsicle sticks, hot glue, wheels and a rat trap. I made a frame out of the popsicle sticks and laid more sticks on top and glued it together. I used toy car wheels on a stainless steal bar for the axle. I then put and extention on the rat trap arm with a piece of bamboo. I taped the rat trap on to the car. I then taped the string to the axle and glued it to the extention on the rat trap. I then wound up the string onto the axle.

My IMA of the wheel/axle

My IMA of rat trap

My car went 12 squares. I learned that I can make a car using a rat trap. I also learned that you can place extensions on it to make it move farther. I would of changed the string taped to the axle because it acted like a break.
I would of made the extension a little bit longer.

kitkat said...

I used popsicle stics for my base of the car. I used metal bars for the wheel bars to hold on. My wheels were regular rubber wheels.

my car went 5 squares. I think next time i should level the car out to make it go farther. I would make the car differently next time.

Anonymous said...

I used Popsicle sticks, skewers, hot glue, plastic wheels and a rat trap. I made the bottom of the car with popsicle sticks and then I placed to skewers on top of them and glued them together and then i made the top of the car with popsicles and glued it all together.

IMA of the wheel/axle:

IMA of the mousetrap setup:

My car went less than 5....I believe it went 3 squares. I learned that friction has a lot to do with the way your car moves. The friction on the wheels prevented it from moving far enough.

I think that if I would have used a different type of string it may have gone farther than it had. If I had used an extension it would have gone farther.

Marcia Powell said...

This is Austin. I used Connectix to make my car because they are stable enought to withstand the rat trap. I used a rat trap for extra acceleration. My car went about 6 blocks, but that that was really fast. I could have put in a gear ratio to change my speeds and distance.

My car was built like a dragster, with big wheels in back and smaller wheels in front. It had a lot of weight because of the rat trap, but not all focused at the back.

My measurements included a de of 4 and a dr of 8 for my rat trap, so that makes a mechanical advantage of 4/8, or .5. The wheel had a diamter of 21 and the axle had a diameter of 3.6, so 3.6/21 is an IMA of .1 IMA tells you if the machine goes faster or easier. My cmachine was designed to go fast.

If I built this again, I would try to equal distance and speed as much as possible. I know how I would do it. I would still use a rat trap, but I would stick a chunk of fishing pole and wind it on a better axle made of metal with a gear ratio. Making a longer body would help, too

Unknown said...

Wheel/axle - dr is the wheel
de is the axle
de-32 dr-7 32/7
IMA is 4.571


Rat trap - de is 2.5
dr is 17.8
2.5/17.8
IMA is.14

Unknown said...

I used K'nex pieces, tape, yarn, and a regular mouse trap. mine was shaped like a drag racer so it would have less wind resistance. I extended the arm with bamboo sticks so it would go farther. I tape, and strung, the mouse trap to the front of the drag racer for a better mechanical advantage. I taped one end of the string to the end of the bamboo, the other end to the back axle.

The IMA of the mousetrap : .2
The IMA of the wheel : .1

My car went 17 squares on it's second test. I learned that the heavier it is... The more you're probably gonna want to go with distance over speed... I would have made it lighter so it could go faster. I would use lighter materials to make it if I could. Otherwise, I would keep it the same.

sweet georgiagurl101 said...

i used some little round things for my car and so far it sucks