Purpose:

Construct a car that is powered by one mousetrap that will either:

1. Travel the greatest displacement; or
2. Travel 5m in the smallest amount of time.

Rules:

• The car must be powered by a single mousetrap.
• The mousetrap cannot be altered in any way except:
  • A maximum of 4 holes may be drilled to attach the trap to the car.
  • The lever of the trap may be lengthened by securely adding material.
• The car cannot have any propulsion energy other than the mousetrap.
• The release of the trap must start the car. No other motion will be permitted.
• The car will be required to travel in a straight line.
• The displacement of the car will be measured perpendicularly from the starting line to the part of the car closest to the starting line.

The Contest:

• The contest will be held on a smooth level surface.
• Each car will be given three attempts to achieve the highest performance.

Guidelines for Research and Experimentation

• Each car will be constructed based on research and experimentation of three or less people.
• Students will be required to build the car outside of school. Some experimentation will be done in class, however most performance analyses will be required to be completed outside of school.
• Students are to collect the following information:
  • Rotational inertia of drive wheels and non-drive wheels.
  • Rolling Friction and coefficient of rolling friction.
  • Experiment with different drive wheel sizes and graph wheel size vs. time to travel 5 m.(speed only)
  • Experiment with different lengths for the lever arm and graph arm length vs. time to travel 5m.(speed only)
  • Experiment with different drive wheel sizes and graph wheel size vs. displacement traveled.(displacement only)
  • Experiment with different lengths for the lever arm and graph arm length vs. displacement traveled.(displacement only)
  • Determine and graph pulling force vs. degree of spring angle.
  • Students will be asked to turn in a report describing the data collected and rationalize their design decisions using the data

Scoring

All performance scoring will be based on the best trial of the car. The instructor’s decision on the performance of the vehicle is final.

• Performance (20 Points)
  • Distance -1 point for each meter traveled. (25 point max.)
  • Speed – 1 point for each 0.25 seconds under 7.5 seconds. (25 point max.)

• Research (40 Points)
  • Data and graphs (20 points)
  • Design Rationalization (10 points)
  • Organization (5 points)
  • Final design drawing (5 points)

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