Progress report!

This is what have completed in our last few classes. We have remade the snap part of the trap to make it a lot longer. the only thing that we are debating on changing is the tires

Day 9 - of making our mouse trap car

Today we are finishing up our 3D design in google sketch up. We will be posting the picture of the google sketch up soon. Next we will be moving on to scavenging  matterials needed. As our prototype of due this friday. We will post pictures of that also later on this week.

LEARNING FROM OTHERS

LEARNING FROM OTHERS

Mouse Trap Car-   Introduction: Making a mousetrap car is a mechanical engineering challenge often used as a competition for students from 5th grade up to the second year college. A mousetrap powered car is a vehicle that uses a mouse trap for a motor and a string to transmit force. In this method one end of a string is attached or tied to the arm on the mousetrap and the other end of the string is wound around an axle. By winding the string around the axle the mouse trap's spring is stretched and now you have your stored energy. As the mousetrap car is released the mouse trap pulls the string off of the axle causing the wheels to turn and off the vehicle goes. Some students may prefer to cut all the woods themselves and design their own car; however, most students and teachers prefer to get all the parts in a kit and make changes as they need. With this project students can explore: A simple propulsion method Basic gluing/ craft techniques and design concepts Concept of stored energy Items Needed: Mousetrap Car Kits usually come with parts, cut to size and ready to use. The picture in the right shows the materials you usually find in a mousetrap car kit from MiniScience. Kit includes at least 16 wooden parts cut to size in addition to the mousetrap, string, rubber bands and 8 brass eyelets. Materials Checklist: Before using the kit please verify the content with the parts in this picture. In addition to the kit parts you will need: White glue or wood glue Grip Pins Sand Paper (Medium Grit) Tape++ Latex Paint

Sketch ideas

Our First sketch of ideas.. and then our second sketch ideas

YouTube Videos Learning From Others

IDENTIFYING SOURCES OF INSPIRATION!- Roger Nickleson

My partner Aaron over here has a great idea. 

• His idea is that we should do a similar design to the picture in our most recent post. 
• I have the great idea to have a mouse trap that will snap on the remote of a remote control car causing it to go forever.Another idea that would work good, 
• a good website for ideas that we are using is http://www.docfizzix.com/design-help/ 
• An Awesome ideas i found is ...

• This project results in a very simple mousetrap car. It probably won't go very far or fast, but it'll help you learn the basics of how this type of car works. Then you can try your hand at building a more complex car. See some ideas at the end of the project.
  
  
   Materials:
• Wooden snap-back mousetrap
• Duct tape
• 4 eye hooks
• Wooden dowel that fits inside the eye hooks
• Heavy cardboard
• Large and small rubber bands
• Foam board (usually found at a craft store)
• String
• Ruler or straight edge
• Utility knife
• Pliers

What to do:

1. Have your partner help you use a utility knife to cut four wheels out of a piece of foam board or corrugated cardboard. Make the back wheels about double the diameter of the front wheels. (Use a compass to draw the circles, or trace around a bowl or cup.)
2. Give your wheels some traction by stretching large rubber bands around each wheel.  For the small wheels you could also try using a section of a balloon.
3. If there are metal or plastic teeth on the mousetrap, remove them carefully using a pair of pliers. Also remove the rod that is used to set the trap.
4. Start building the base, or chassis, of the car by cutting a piece of strong cardboard so that it is slightly bigger (about 1/2") than the mousetrap on every side.  Use duct tape to attach the mousetrap to the base. Don't cover up the spring in the middle of the trap or the "snapper arm." 
5. Screw the eye hooks onto the bottom of the cardboard chassis, one in each corner. Use a ruler to make sure that the eye hooks are aligned with each other.
6. Cut the wooden dowel so you have two pieces that are both about two inches longer than the width of the chassis you have made.  These will serve as your axles that rotate the wheels.  Stick the dowels through the eye loops.  Make sure that the axles are straight and that there is room for them to spin in the eye hooks.
7. Cut holes a little bit smaller than the dowel through the center of each wheel, then attach the wheels to the base.  Put the large wheels on the back of the car, opposite the snapper arm.  Wrap a small rubber band around the axle on either side of each wheel so the wheels can't fall off.
8. Tie a string very tightly to the snapper arm on the mouse trap.  The string should be long enough to just reach to the back axle.
9. You may need someone to help you with this last step.  Carefully pull back the snapper arm until it reaches the other end of the trap.  Hold it in place while your helper wraps the string tightly around one side of the axle.  Holding the string tightly, set the car on the ground and carefully let go of the trap - the string should be wound tight enough that it holds the trap in place. Next, make sure everyone's hands are out of the way and then let go of the string. The trap will snap forward, propelling your car

Learning from others~Richard Bushard

This is just one of the ideas that we snatched up off the 'ol internet explorer. We are planning on using the CDs as the wheels for the vehicular invention we are creating. what you are seeing below is some materials that would be  a good idea to use. http://www.instructables.com/id/Mouse-Trap-car/

Mouse Trap Discover Project #1

We are starting this new project, where we have to engineer a car or vehicle that has to be generated by the kinetic energy from a mouse trap. First things first we have to answer a few questions. The next step is to create a 3- dimensional design on google sketch-up. 

What We Know: 

• we know that we have to design an create a car with the kinetic energy from a mouse trap.
• we know that we have three weeks to design and create the motorized vehicle.
• we know that our final design has to be fast and can travel long distances. 
• we know that its a competition against the other student in Cold Lake High School Multi-media. We will be racing for a prize for first place. 
• We know that we can't go and purchase any products or supplies, we have to scavenge all of it from the school.

What We Need To Know:

•  We need to know how to make the body, how to attach the mouse trap to the vehicle.
• we have to go YouTube to get some ides to help with the designing of our car. 
• Gather up some other design ideas from others (teacher, student)
• we need to know the size and weight of the car and which will be better for sped and distance.

• how to set up the mouse trap in a way to accelerate a small car.

Please comment.....we need feed-back ideas thanks. :)