Mousetrap Car
Design Brief
Create a car powered by only a mousetrap to travel the furthest possible distance.
Solution
To solve this problem I created a two wheel, single axel design modeled below. The presence of a singular axel reduced friction as much as possible while still allowing full function. The mousetrap transferred power through a lever arm pulling an axel. This motion created rotational acceleration moving the wheels and causing forward motion. This design performed quite successfully, traveling 75 feet on a gym floor.
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During this competition, I learned of the various responsibilities involved in a single person project and the skills required. Brainstorming was necessary to develop the final design utilized in the competition. I developed CAD skills to properly model my mousetrap car on the computer. Physical skills were necessary to combine the various parts into a working mousetrap car. I developed redesign skills as redesign was necessary after the completion of this mousetrap car to get the maximum amount of distance out of this car.
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The following video is from the testing of the mousetrap car.
This image shows a rendering of the mousetrap car I created in Autodesk Inventor
This image shows sketches residing in my engineering notebook of my mousetrap car. Various details can be viewed about the mousetrap car that were carried into the computer model.