The objective is to build a car that is self propelled and can make it over the hill.
Car plan and Justification
Materials list : 1 small mousetrap ($5), 1 piece of cardboard($0.25), 4 bottle caps($0.50), 1 skewer($0.05), duck tape($0.05), 1 pen(1$), string($1), 10 to 20 little rubber bands ($1)
The car will be light so that it can go faster it will also be propelled by a mouse trap because it creates a big force to propel the car. The rubber bands around the wheels will create a small amount of friction so that the plastic bottle caps aren't too slippery
The force that will act on our car is the force of the mouse trap. Since it is tied to the skewer the skewer will be pulled by the force of the mouse trap. The car will accelerate at the start of the race because it will go from stopped to speeding up then it will slow down as the force of the mouse trap is no longer there and it finishes going up hill. Our car is not that massive and weights very little which means it will have a higher velocity to balance out the force. Newtons first and third laws apply to this because the car continues to move after even after the force is applied also as the car accelerates the mouse trap is applying a lesser force whites decreasing. At the top of the hill the car will start to lose momentum and impulse.
Analysis
I am disappointed with my cars performance because I believe if we would have been able to test it more before the race we could have been able to fix the wheel better. I think we were just unlucky.
Ramp Test evaluation
- We did not make any modifications from our original plans.
- Our car had a big displacement. It came out quick with a lot of acceleration then started to slow down as it approached the top of the ramp.
- The car did not perform as expected due to the positioning of the wheels because it kept turning to the side. It did go a good see just right into the wall.
- The only modification is the replace the wheels so the car can go straight.
Evidence
Our car was not successful in the end. We could not get the wheels straight. The cars that were the most successful in this project were the ones that were more massive and had bigger mouse traps. Since the mass and the force were increased the time it took for the car to accelerate also increased which is a good strategy for a race like this because it needs enough time and force to get up the hill. It is also good for a car to be more massive because it can overpower smaller cars. I would improve by using a bigger mouse trap and making sure the wheels are straight.
yes, being well constructed wins out over everything... :)
