Final Blog Entry

My favorite part of building the car was when we finally found the perfect amount of traction for the wheels and we got the car to move at a constant speed and go in a straight line. 

I think the group collaborated really well together. We all contributed equally and used our strengths to really help the group. 

Progress in Mousetrap Car Friday, February 21st 2014

Calculate both the spring potential energy of your car and the kinetic energy demonstrated by your trial. Can you support your answer with hard data?

The Potential Energy of our car is .072J.

P.E.= (distance/pi*r)(Avg. Force)

P.E.= (.16m)(.45 Kg m^2/s^2)

P.E.= .072J

The Kinetic Energy of our car is .0438J

Mass: 87.6g = 87.6/1000= .0876kg

K.E.= 1/2mv^2

K.E.= 1/2(.0876)(1^2)

K.E.= .0438J

Compare the spring potential energy of your mousetrap car to the highest value of kinetic energy obtained.  Does it make sense?  Why or why not?  How do you know?  Can you support your answer with hard data?

The data that we found does make sense. The reason why is because only .0438 J of the potential energy transferred to kinetic energy and that is shown through how fast our car goes. Our car travels at 1.14 m/s, showing the little amount of kinetic energy that went into the car.

Do an analysis of the values of potential and kinetic energy, and offer specific physics principles to explain your results.  Does it make sense?  Why or why not?  How do you know?  Can you support your answer with hard data?

What problems related to friction did you encounter and how did you solve them?

We found that our wheels did not have enough traction so we taped the surface of our wheels to create more friction. With more friction, the wheels did not skid when we released the trap and the car traveled forward.

What were the most challenging design problems you encountered in building your mousetrap car and what physics concepts did you use to solve them?

The main problem we found was not enough traction in our wheels so we used tape to create friction. We also needed to more force to make our car go faster. We used a lever arm however it fell off every time we launched our trap from too much force. We eventually took that off.

Our Energy Story

It all started with the sun. The sun gave energy to the seeds that were planted in the soil to grow. This grows our food, our food then goes to the dining hall. We eat the food from the dining hall,  this gives us energy. We then have the energy to start to gather our materials, our food fuels us to build the car as well. We use the mouse trap lever to power our car.

Happy Racing!!

-Hannah, Mamadou, Izzy

The Last Lap!

 Here is a video of our final run!

Here's a look at our results. Our final velocity was 1.149 m/s!

Happy Racing,

Hannah, Mamadou and Izzy

Progress in Mousetrap Car Thursday, February 20th 2014

Today we added traction to the front wheels. We also tried to attach a lever arm but it did not benefit our car. At the end we found out that our car goes 1 m/s.

We decked our car out in flames and checkerboard patterns. 

Progress in the Mousetrap Car in Tuesday, February 18, 2014

                      What went really well on Tuesday:

• The wheels turn more efficiently when we added red tape to the wheels (Physics Concept: friction)
• We increased the rate in which the car was moving from the day before (Physics Concept: velocity and acceleration)

                    What we struggled with on Tuesday:

• The wheels in the car are not moving consistently in a straight path (Physics Concept: traction)

                  What do we have to do in order to improve the mousetrap car:

•  We have to either apply more red tape in order to apply more traction within the wheels or find a particular way in creating more velocity.

                  What are we worried about: 

• That our wheels will not stay consistently in one path, restricting the maximum amount of speed the mousetrap car can actually go!
  
  
  
  Hannah is applying red tape to improve the friction within the wheels.
  
  
  Happy Racing!
  -Hannah, Mamadou, and Izzy

Progress in Mouse Trap Car- Thursday, February 13, 2014

 Izzy drawing the holes for the popsicle sticks that will hold the mousetrap cars.

               

                      Izzy punching in holes for the popsicle sticks that will hold the mousetrap cars together!

    

                                 Mamadou cutting the insides of the wheels of the mousetrap car!
       

 Hannah fixing the wheels for the mousetrap car!

                Hannah and Izzy placing glue on the dowels to keep it stable on the mousetrap car!
                                         

The Hunt Is On

And we're off! Our mousetrap car is going to be one of the best. Not only is it going to be one of the fastest cars, but it’s also going to be one of the most eco friendly cars. We originally just visited the supplies table in the back of the classroom when we thought our car should be like everyone else’s. We instead decided to get a little more creative. We started asking our hall mates and our classmates for old materials rather than buying new supplies. We rummaged through the recycling bins at the end of our halls until we found the materials that we needed. The only materials not listed that we might use, once we get through the technical plans, are markers or crayons. We will use these to paint on our racing stripes and probably some flames too. When creating our design we decided to make the car as light as we possibly could. This way instead of the car just rolling across the floor, it will glide, barely touching the floor, as if it was flying. We used the wheels we thought would be the smoothest and the thinnest in order to reduce friction. This all sounds great now, but the only thing that worries us is that when it actually comes time to construct our car we might have to alter our genius blueprints because we find that something doesn’t actually work the way we thought it would.

Blueprint of our car.
 The snap of the mousetrap with pull the string resulting in the spinning of the back axel to power the car. 

These 4 rolls of tape will be the wheels to our car. Their surface is smooth so it will create less friction against the track and cause our car to go faster.

This is the mousetrap that we have to build the car around. When the trap is set off it will pull the string attached to the axel.

The cardboard will be cut into circles and go into the center portion of the wheels. The axels will be going through the cardboard, as it is to hold it in place.

These are the 2 dowels used as the axels. They will go through the popsicle sticks and have wheels attached on either end. String will be tied around the back axel to make it spin.

These 2 popsicle sticks will be glued to the side of the mousetrap and act as the sides to the car. The axels will go through them.

This is the string used to tie around and spin the axel.

Happy Racing!
-Izzy, Hannah, & Mamadou