Mouse Trap car

One of my sons friends stayed over yesterday and mentioned in passing he'd been assigned to make a mouse trap car for school. I thought about how I had lots of fun making those way back and decided to make one out of scraps off my desk and document it. It's far from the best one ever and unlikely to win any awards, but it does work.

Step 1 Supplies

I used the following:

A mouse trap
4 eye hooks
6 balloons
2 bic pens (the smooth kind)
2 tops from pop cans (for the serious perhaps washers, or otherwise any other bendable metal)
some string (not pictured)
4 CDs/DVDs (expendable ones). Here 3 CDRs and a blank transparent thing from the top of a spindle. I hear DVDs are a bit lighter, but I'm not optimizing that hard.

Comments

[teh darkcloud]

Nice. I made one of these in my Engineering class a few months back. My team did pretty... bad. We got stuck with two know-it-all sophomores, a girl who was afraid of tools, another girl who just wanted to get her math homework done that she didn't do the night before, and me... the shy, quiet girl who had ideas but couldn't voice them. D: (Haha, I'm not trying to make my team look bad, by the way. We all became friends because of that project. xD)

[teh darkcloud]

Oh, also... This is what we ended up with. (The first image is my design. We tried to follow it but somehow ended up with... the second image. >.<)

[doratheexploradora]

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[doratheexploradora]

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[doratheexploradora]

yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[doratheexploradora]

(x+a)^n=∑_(k=0)^n�(n¦k) x^k a^(n-k) 

[eraich]

WHAT DO I DO WITH THE SODA CAPS IM SO CONFUSEDDD

[nmorford]

Here's what second place in states looks like.. this was submittted to MITES (Michigan Industrial Technology Education Society).
Built this bad boy in a team comprised of 2, after countless test runs and adjustments and tearing through boxes of miscellaneous supplies.. it was complete.

[obrooks1]

I couldn't get the hole with the screw because the pen was to hard, so I used a lighter and gently softened up the pen and started screwing. (Dont melt too much or the pen will just be ruined.

[sjohnson51]

what can we use to replace the wheels

[sjohnson51]

it shouldnt b totally tight just enough for the car to go fast

[Rrelyk]

Thanks for the help. I used this in science class and it worked very well. thanks again

[MDani_deer]

Ok, I'm the ONLY girl in my shop class and I have to make one of these. I didn't even know what these things were until I Google'd it, so can anyone tell me what the hell I'm doing here???

[Skillet14]

thats really help ful and txt me @ 553 9417

[MDani_deer]

?

[S2067112]

Can i use a dowel

[sexylady142]

this was really helpful. i had to do a project and it actually worked i got an A in science class

[way2earns28]

grate work. old time mouse trap but effective as usual. Car India car

[JJBladester]

I designed a mousetrap car that can travel 35+ feet in 8.03 seconds while carrying a 323 gram payload. It is powered by two mousetraps and goes dead straight. Dimensions and photos are posted here:

http://jjbladester.com/MousetrapVehicle

This was for an engineering design course at my school, Hudson Valley Community College.

[ppiper]

What is the mechanical average of the car?

[the boss of all bosses]

i was at camp and my friends decided to prank back on me for what i did to them so when i was in the shower they threw the mouse trap at my penis and it stung like crazy. i had marks there for a few weeks!!

[smichealis]

whay does that have to do with a mouse trap car???? O_o

[the boss of all bosses]

we are talking about mouse traps here!!!!! so i just shared a story to warn then mouse traps are dangerous!!
i can share another story if you like??!

[squirrel2468]

no thank you!!!

[mmme123]

umm does this mouse trap car move?
About how long do u think it would move?

[FayHenshaw]

Help!!!!

I am single parent of a 10th grader. She has been asked to build a mouse trap car and have this car go 6 meters!!!! I do not know anything about building project cars and how do we get to go 6 meters before stopping once released?
Can anyone please help with advice?

Please can you include parts to buy and images if possible as I am a visual person :)

Thanks

Stressed mum

[yoyohead415]

Hi bishop gorman!!!

[mp1239]

hey what did you do with the pop tops

[squirrel2468]

RANDOM: did you hear about the tornado in joplin?

[Bennywillpoon282]

wouldn't it be weird if everyone in the world was named Bob?

[squirrel2468]

how does that involve a mouse trap car.

[hqarshi]

how far was it

[joshandrew]

lol lol lol what do you think ideyot

[joshandrew]

lol lol lol what do you think ideyot

[msahu]

Great home based design for mouse trap. Likes your design and i willl try also if needed.

Car Blogs

[joshandrew]

yast that baby doing there. You ar a babey ha hahaha ha ah lol lol :)

[eperez3]

does the string have to be tight or can it be lose???

[joshandrew]

tight dummey

[deeze nuts]

thats what i want to know

[JATO457]

I built one of these for a school project a while ago, though I added lego gears to transfer more energy to the wheels