How is the best way to make a mousetrap car?
820713
I would use a string attached to the metal arm on the trap and wind the other end of the spring arouhd the axle of the car.wind the string tight around the axle with the trap open.  When you release the trap, it should drive the wheel by spinning the axle.  Have fun!
198825
Sticking by the rules you specified;\n\nConstruct an inclined channel (ramp) where the 1 kg (2 lbs)weight (hopefully a metal ball) falls and accelerated by gravity. place the car that will catch and hold the ball at the end of the ramp. The falling ball's inertia will propel the car almost equal to its speed and may reach more than 1 meter on a flat even surface, design the car with low center of gravity, with less than half the weight of the propellant ball (weight) as a consideration.\n\n************* \n\nAh, New data acquired --- resolution: same application of inertial force using a rigid pendulum.\n\nConstruct a pendulum with the required height putting the fulcrum point at 10 cm directly above the floor of the car, giving you a swing radius of 10 cm from top to bottom, use a cardboard/plastic tube (shute) to carry the pill bottle but loose enough to set it free after a sudden stop once it reaches the bottom where the position of the pill bottle is parallel with the floor of the car. This configuration may not give you as much distance relying on gravity alone but may be able to get 1 meter if conditions are favorable, pertaining to weight of car and means of motion (wheel and shaft should be well oiled for free-wheeling), relevant to weight of falling object, unless you are allowed to spring load the fulcrum. You can put the fulcrum as part of the car (but it will add more weight/ but you wont need the shute, all components will be integrated), or as a separate launcher (which you will need the shute). make sure the center of gravity on the car is low for stability. when integration of all component is involved make the wheel base equally wide as 10 cm. If just for the pill bottle, just narrow enough to carry the bottle.\n\nmy idea: http://server4.pictiger.com/img/124010/other/1-kg-inertia-car.jpg\n\nInnovation is part application and part logical creativity. Isn't science great!\n~meow
707613
Some good examples are shown at http://www.cape.k12.mo.us/cjhs/science/strom/newton's_laws.htm.\n\nThe core of the problem is well described by:\n"Your vehicle must use Newton’s third law of motion to move forward; it must move forward by pushing backward on the floor, the air, or some other object."\n\nI frequently see the rule that electricity may not be used, though this seems to be inconsistent since electricity is just another form of stored energy and you still have to apply Newton's 3rd law to make your scooter move.\n\nAnyway, your problem is to store up sufficient energy somehow and then to release it in a controlled manner so that your scooter makes the 1.5M distance without crashing into the far side of the room. The simplest way to do this is through a spring of some kind. One good source for a spring would be a common mousetrap or rat trap. The mousetrap has a torsion spring that is loaded with energy when you set the trap and which suddenly releases it's energy when the trap is sprung. Some examples are shown at http://www.hypography.com/topics/mousetrapcar.cfm and http://www.docfizzix.com/how_work.htm (really good instruction site).\n\nAnother way to store energy in a spring is to blow up a balloon. The air inside the balloon is forced out and can propel a car. See http://www.balloonhq.com/balloon_car/balloon_car.html for some ideas.\n\nIn either case, you need to have some control over your energy release. With the mousetrap, the size of the axle and the wheels are important, as they determine the "gearing" of the energy transfer from the mousetrap to the floor. For the balloon, you'll want some way to experiment with different size nozzles to control how fast the air is released.\n\nYou can find wooden wheels at arts and crafts stores. You'll need something for an axle that turns smoothly or you'll lose all of your energy to friction.\n\nI'd go with the moustrap car shown on http://www.docfizzix.com/how_work.htm\n\nGood luck!
987856
Pick it and fling it on passing cars.  When you get really good you will be able to fling it inside an open window.  :)
181390
Get wooden matchsticks and cut the heads off of them.  Then it is a simple means of making the design and building it.\n\nOr you can order this kit.
660694
Here's one way.  I built something like this when I was 11.\n\nI dont need to say the obvious about not cutting off your fingers, poking your eyes out, or gluing your hands to the table do I?\n\nie I'm assuming you're capable of doing the below safely.\n\nyou need:\n\n2 big wheels\n1 smaller wheel (you can always make wheels from cardboard and balsa)\nThe biggest propeller thats fits.\nelectric motor\nlantern battery (big square thing with springs on the top)\nSome 1/8" thick balsa sheet.\nsome dowel which fits in the wheel.\nwire\nA wide necked plastic drinks bottle - Sunny D maybe?\nsticky tape \nhot melt glue \nlong drawing pins/nails\n2 x 10-20 ml syringes and a length of narrow bore plastic tube.  (doctors surgery might give you two syringes if you ask nicely an the tube is used on fish tanks)\n\n\nThe plastic drinks bottle is going to be the chassis for your car.\n\nyou need to cut the following holes in it\n\n- small hole in the lid \n\n- Big hole in the side just smaller than the tennis ball\n\n- Small hole for the wires from the motor\n\n- small rectangle opposite the big hole, near the bottom of  the bottle, same width and length as the small wheel.\n\n- 2 small holes the same diameter as the dowel further up\n\n\nHot melt the motor to the inside of the lid with the shaft sticking through the hole.\n\nSecure the propellor to the front of it. \n\ncut two long lengths of wire.  Strip the ends and twist one wire around each of the terminals on the motor.\n\nFit the cap, motor & propellor wires.  push the motor wires though the bottle.\n\nPut a short length of dowel through the small wheel and then hot melt it inside the plastic bottle so the wheel sticks down through the hole you made.\n\nStick a long piece of Dowel through the two small holes at the front.  And pin the wheels on the axles.  All the Wheels rotate freely.\n\nHot melt  another piece of dowel to the bottom of the bottle so that it sticks up vertically.\n\nMake a rudder out of the 1/8" balsa. say 6" high and 3" deep.  Near the bottom stick a 1/2" long piece of dowel so that pokes out at 90°.\n\nTape the balsa to the vertical dowel along one side only so that it will hinge.\n\nHot melt a syringe to the top of the bottle so that the plunger is facing the rudder.  Attach a piece of dowel to the syringe plunger and then to the short bit of dowel sticking out of the rudder.  the rudder end needs to be able to move  ie pinned together.\n\nConnect the syringe to the plastic tube.\n\nWrap the wire from the motor and the tube together with tape to make an umbilical cord. \n\nconnect the other end of the tube to the syringe\n\nConnecting the battery up will give you forwards and reverse and pushing the syringe in and out will give you steering.\n\nThe tennis ball will just sit in the hole on top.
432238
Mass, acceleration, velocity, wheel size, traction (tire surface contact to track), torque from engine, horsepower. Are some of the things needed to know.\n\nYour best bet is start with a kit for a given class of race car and build and learn from that. Start with a Go-Kart.
695273
Use the java.awt.Robot class.  It has the moveMouse() method.  Handy for automated testing, self-running demonstrations, etc.
885967
Well, if you have to use a mousetrap, the best thing to do is to find a big mousetrap.  Get a few and make sure yours is a quality one that isn't worn and that the spring has some life to it.\n  Probably the hardest part is going to build some sort of a cage that will hold the marble in place and get it to throw the marble at a 45degree angle.  \n  Get a protractor and set the base of the trap on an angle so that when it does go off you can get as close to 45degrees as possible. \n  Also If you can build some sort of a stop on your mousetrap so that when the throwing end flings it doesn't smash your cage you built on it .  I would put a strong metal wire that catches the arm after it fires.
70765
The string ties to the flipper on the mousetrap then wraps around one of the axles of your car (as in spin the wheels and wind the string around the axle as you're pulling back the trap) when the trap is released it'll unwind the string and power your car!     Can you tell I did this in physics class?\n\nHints - - try a length of elastic rather than string if you can (preferably about a quater inch wide or so)\n- - if you have no limitations on your design see if you're allowed to attach a "pull back & go" motor to the axle the string winds around (you'll win for sure with it!)\n- - Also using the back axle for power works better than front in most cases\n\nGOOD LUCK
417634
Connect the toy car to the mousetrap and let a mouse loose. it will move by itself.
537936
Use a shoe box.  Tape on some wheels and axles.  Put the balloons inside the box with the base of the balloons taped so all the air will go out the back.  When the air is released it will form a primitive rocket, propelling the box-car across the floor.\n\nI can't say this isn't rocket science, because technically, it is.
262343
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/mouse.htm
465421
Thinking out of the box:\n\n  Just crumple it up into a paper ball.\n\nRough texture but easily a sphere.
159363
Push it.  A mousetrap exerts force only for an short period of time.  You're not going to be able to make the car keep moving for very long.\n\nAlso, I don't know what "the string thing" is.  Perhaps you could explain this?
754829
i would simulate it in java, it has a lot of the basic stuff done already like graphics.\n\nthen its just some simple AI.\n\ntry using a some line intersection adn putting simulated wiskers on your robot.\n\nlook at this, it will give you some good ideas on how you should do it.\n\nhttp://www.red3d.com/cwr/steer/\ni think thats what your after.
840026
http://www.rightmousebutton.com/