Mousetrap Powered Car

This project entailed creating a vehicle to move through a pit of sand using only the energy of a mousetrap shutting. The performance was measured by multiplying the weight of the vehicle by the displacement accomplished in the sand trap. The vehicle traveled 20 inches on the horizontal while weighing 0.2 kilograms.

Mousetrap Powered Car: Image

Here is the schematic for the vehicle. The chasis is made of foamboard to make the body lightweight. The tires have an inner layer of a cylinder of firm foam and an outler layer of loops of cut-up pool noodles so that it was both lighweight and overcame the friction of the sand trap that it moved through. The axles are aluminum rods, where the back axle has the string from the mousetrap coiled around its center. The mousetrap - which lays on top of the chasis - has another long, aluminum rod connected to its lever and the string tied to the rod which leads to the back axle. This allows the motion of the lever shutting to be drawn out and generate the same energy over a longer span of time. The mouse trap lever was tied with a string through a hole on the top of the chasis and the string was cut to initiate the motion.

Mousetrap Powered Car: Image

Slow Motion Video of Vehicle in Sand Trap

As can be seen in the video, the vehicle begins to veer right towards the end. This was determined to be from a combination of unequal heights between the rear wheels as well as an improper fitting of the axle through the chasis.

Mousetrap Powered Car: Video