Danielle FinchSenior Engineering

5th Period BerryFantastic Mouse Trap Contraption!

My mouse trap car was built with accuracy, style, and overachievement in mind. I began with a simple idea and gradually perfected it until I achieved all of the aforementioned goals. My first idea was not much different than the design I ended up using, except that I used some different materials than I originally planned on using.

Materials:-1/4” Balsa Wood (Body)-4 CDs (Wheels)-1 Mouse Trap-Wooden Dowel Rods (Axles)-Egg Carton bases (Support for wheels)-Twine-Paint, Hot Glue, Tape, etc.

Design:

My Original Design:

This design was created as a rough idea of what my mouse trap car wouldlook like. The only thing missing from this image is the twine that wouldbe wrapped around the exposed back axle.

This design had very few flaws, but I realized that making the body of the car so bulky might impede the speed of the car itself. I decided to go with a lighter body type, eliminating the box idea and creating more of a platform with two sides as supports instead. The other flaw that I noticed was that the slot cut in the back of the body of the car was not long enough and the body might interfere with the string as it was released from it's starting position. To decrease the risk of friction on the string, I decided to cut the slot longer, leaving plenty of room for the string to clear the body of the car.

My Second Design:

Like the first image, this image is also missing the twinestring used to wind the back axle, readying it for take-off.

This second design proved to be much more successful as a mouse trap car. The body of the car was much lighter and helped the car move faster and travel farther than if I used the heavier design shown above. The slot near the back axle made it nearly impossible for the body of the car to interfere with the twine since I decided to make it much longer. The only additions made to this design upon completion of the car was the twine, two wooden supports across the body (one above and one below), the egg carton bases for support around the wheels and decorative additions such as paint.

My Final Product:

My mouse trap car was very successful and traveled an overall distance of 12.4 yards (37.2 feet). The long lever arm, light body, well-gripping twine, and stable wheels, are what, in my opinion, made my mouse trap car work as well as it did. It had very little problem with traveling straight although at times it would veer slightly to the right, which could be fixed with a slight tweak of the front right wheel. Overall, my mouse trap car was a success and went well over the required 9 yards for

the project. I am very proud of my car and some of the unique ideas I came up for it, like using egg carton bottoms to stabilize the wheels (as shown in the two pictures above) and also in the stability of the body design with a flat base and two supporting sides, along with the wooden supports added both below and on top of the vehicle.