Mouse Trap Car

So this was a cool school project. You can't help but learn something. And it's a bit like a Shinteki challenge. (Shinteki is a super geek scavenger hunt type game and a whole lot of fun).

Jake and his friend Travis had to build a "car" propelled by a mouse trap. If you have the means and the know how, you can rig up a pulley and get some serious distance. But you only had to get it to travel 6 meters for an A+. So that was the goal.

We started with a prototype using my Fischer Technik toy. Fischer Technik is a bit like Lego crossed with an erector set. It was one of my favorite toys growing up. They were more expensive than Lego's, and were supposed to be fire proof. I never tested that. And they have lasted to this day. I must have been 9 or 10 when my parents bought me my first set. Now it's 28 years later and my boy is using them for a junior high school project.

Anyway, we learned the keys to distance are the ratio between the size of the axle and the size of the wheels, the length of the arm attached to the mousetrap, traction, and overcoming friction. The first car barely made it 4 meters.

Rachel picked up some larger wheels in the form of a wooden Halloween decoration. I chiseled off the witches and the boys affixed them to the Fisher Technik wheels with screws. And they added a second mousetrap and used garden staples and duct tape to make a longer arm. Rachel also picked up acouple of vacuum cleaner belts for tires to get better traction.

Here it is:


They got a 9 meter run in the gym. That's an A+ with a bullet.