Mouse+Trap+Car

Mouse Trap Car and Launcher
Day 1. The chain reaction starts by a gear rolling down a plank hitting a lager gear, which then nocks a smaller gear off the plank. That gear then makes a cam shaft spin into the exhaust, which is standing on a crank shaft. The exhaust then spins around hitting three valves on a door. The last valve then drops off the door onto a spark plug which trips the dip stick being held on a motor head. The dip stick makes the radiator fall on a tire standing on a pump. Then four tires roll into each other sending three of them up a slight ramp. The last tire hits a rotor off the ramp. The rotor then falls onto a seat belt, which pulls a seat up towards the top of a tire rod, which is holding the seat belt up. This triggers a wiper blade on a zip line to hit a can of oil. The oil spills causing a piece of glass to tilt. This sends some ball bearings rolling off the glass into the first cylinder of the motor on a seesaw. This makes the seesaw uneven and lifts a battery on the other end. The battery is then connected to the motor casing, which is also connected to a coolant fan. The fan hits and antenna being held up by a piston head. A bearing slides down the antenna and hits a muffler. The muffler rolls into a brake pedal. The brake pedal linkage then falls onto the gas pedal and launches a small object into the spare tire tubing. The tubing is sitting on top of the front of the car body and rolls off and drops onto a fan belt between two rear wheel rotors. The belt is fixed to a cable, which spins and nocks over connecting rods. The connecting rods hit a cylinder that rolls down a plank. When the cylinder hits the window in connects two leads that complete the current that make the window go down. The cylinder continues down the plank and rolls off into the car handles. The handles place the cylinder down onto a battery. The battery then triggers the release of washer fluid onto a windshield. The washer fluid triggers the windshield wipers to move towards and hit the emergency brake handle. The emergency brake releases the window mobile. As it spins it blows over an interior door panel. The door panel then hits a pin, which rolls into a suspension coil. A rod spins down the suspension coil and connects to a battery starting the dashboard and console of the car. The speakers from the sideboards are set under the rear windshield. Another suspension coil is resting on top of the windshield. The music makes the windshield vibrate and the coil rolls off onto a pedal. The pedal and the pedal cabals extend the shocks. The shocks extending trigger a series of pulls, which lower a spark plug onto the keys. The keys then close the rear hatch causing the car the roll off the ramp.

Day 2. Today we researched mouse trap car designs. We decided to focus on the car first instead of the launcher. We looked at many designs to get an idea of the more generals ways that a mouse trap car can be built. In our heads we came up with a general idea of what we want from the system that makes the car move. We came up with a pulley design to spin the rear axle so we can use a shorter arm to conserve space. this pulley system should help us create more torque with a smaller arm and less string.

Day 3. Today we had a substitute.

Day 4. Today we brought in our materials and began building. We started by talking the spool from a box of fishing line and connecting a rod through it. Then we took a wooden yarn spool and connected a rod through the middle of that. Then we took a erector set and set up four supports. Two for the fishing spinal and two more for a small pulley that was in the set. We then connected a string to test the system. We found that it didn't work to well with the small pulley so we took that out. We also started to assemble the rear axle.The rear axle is a steel rod. We attached the wooden spool to it and put two plexy glass wheels on it. We made the rear wheels bigger than to help it go further.

Day 5. Today we fully built the mouse trap car. We attached the front and rear axle with the wheels to the base using pieces of metal and nuts and small bolts. The mouse trap was attached the same way. We then used a wire coat hanger to make and extended arm for a longer draw of the string. Unfortunately we still must critique the pulley system because the car only goes about five meters and its slow. This is due to the little amount of torque on the rear axle. We also are in the process of creating a longer arm to help with the torque problem.

Day 6. Today we started thinking that maybe our design for the car wasn't good enough to make the full ten meters. For our sake we decided to stick with the design. The problem we were confronted with was how can create more torque. We first thought about putting rubber bands around the rear axle and large spool. This didn't work because the rubber bands made the amount of torque need way to high. It wouldn't even go a foot with the rubber bands on. So we went back to string for the rear axle. We also put a rubber band on the arm extension.

Day 7. Today we started to build the ping pong ball launcher. We started by taking a spoon and attaching it to the metal bar of the mouse trap that snaps down. This is the most basic thing we could think of. Now we r trying to expand on it.

Day 8. Today we tested our mouse trap car. When we did the rubber band attached to the extended arm broke. So we put a new one on. We started talking if a rubber band was a good decision to use. We decided to stick with the rubber band but this time we thought it would be a good idea to use two. That way it wouldn't brake and more torque would be created. When we tested the car it worked better but went too far. We tried shortening the string to make the car stop at ten meters but the string just got tangled. We still have to think of a way to make the car travel a little less distance.

Day 9. Today we tested our car trying to determine the length of string needed to make the car go the ten meters. We shortened it about two rotations of the large spool thinking that would work. Again it went too far so we then shortened it another three rotations. The first two tests worked great going the full ten meters exactly. On the third test the one metal support started bending and slowing down the large spool. We tried bending it back, but it still kept touching the spool. We have to bend it and then clamp it some how in a good position.

Day 10. Today we did the final testing of our mouse trap car. We ran it about seven times making sure that our mark on the string attached to the rear axle will give us consistent runs. Then we started critiquing the ping pong ball launcher. The spoon attached to the snapping part of the trap worked at first but then broke after a couple of trials. So we were trying to think of different ways to launch a ball and as we were doing this i kept putting rubber bands on the one ping pong ball. Just for fun I put the rubber band ping pong ball on the trap and it went ten feet exactly. I believe this was due to the increased weight. Unfortunately we were not allowed to use this.

Day 11. Today we build a ping pong ball launcher that will be the one we use in the competition. We took the handle of a spoon and taped an ice tea cap on it for the bucket of the launcher. We then taped the handle to the snapping bar of the trap and put some cross supports on it so it won't rotate. We found out that we don't have to set the mouse trap for launch the ball so we took everything off the mouse trap except the spring and bar that are necessary to launching the ball. Then we decided to put a bar across the front of the launcher to stop it from shooting right into the ground. Then we screwed the launcher onto the car and took it out in the hallway for some test trails.

Day 12. Toady we tested everything to make sure we are all good for tomorrow. We did seven runs of the mouse trap car and looked over everything. We looked at the wheels, the spools, the extension arm the supports. The car was examined head to toe. Then we tested the ping pong ball launcher. First making sure that it works and will hold together. We taped it up a little more to make it a little more rigid. Then we had Harrison test his accuracy with shooting it. Once he seemed to have gotten into a rhythm we tested and timed him to see how many shots he could get off in a minute. We feel pretty confident in our car for the competition.

Day 13. Today was competition day. The air was filled with intensity. We very quickly, before everything was set up, ran a few test runs to make sure that our mark was correct and everything was running good. On our last lest run we did a perfect run. And because of this we decided to go first. The first part of the competition was the ten meter run into the different size squares. The smallest square was a half meter by half meter and was worth the full twenty points. So we went first and did another perfect run. After everyone went we did the launcher test. There was a small course set up with a board ten feet away with different size holes worth different points. In this competition we went last because of going first last time. When it was our turn the score to beat was eight. We had Harrison launching, me feeding him balls and Tyler throwing me the used ping pong balls. At first we didn't score any points but then Harrison started figuring it out and he scored nine points to put us in the winning position. It was a good competition day .