Thursday, October 13, 2011

Mouse Trap Racecar

Total Achievements: 6


Build It
 The first iteration of our racer used a crap ton of string to secure the trap to the chassis (green arrow). We modified a pencil to extend the lever and decided to use a rubber band instead of string (black arrow).  
Competitor
The first trial was pretty good, the racer traveled the farthest out of all of the periods though there were some things we needed to change.

Feedback
+The rubber band/ pencil lever extension worked fantastically
Δ The length of the front should be longer for more distance
!Experiment with longer rubber bands and/or more tension
?How can we prevent the longer front from bending?

Re-work
We used two rubber bands under more tension for better acceleration and modified the front 
so it would be longer using the metal fischertechnik beams.

Long Distance Winner, Going the Mile 
The classroom eventually was not sufficient in length for the racer so we moved to a longer hallway in the CoSA building and traveled 792 cm or ~8 m!