Long distance Mousetrap Car- Ilia Ebrahim Nejad

Table of Contents
Statement of Intent:...............................................................................................................................................2
Research.................................................................................................................................................................3
Design 1: Medium Distance Car....................................................................................................................................3
Design 2: Long distance.................................................................................................................................................3
Design 3: Long distance.................................................................................................................................................3
Design 5: Speed............................................................................................................................................................... 4
Design 6: Speed............................................................................................................................................................... 5
Project Development..............................................................................................................................................6
Sketches........................................................................................................................................................................... 6
First Sketch:.......................................................................................................................................................................................6
...........................................................................................................................................................................................................6
Detailed Sketch:.................................................................................................................................................................................6
CAD Drawings................................................................................................................................................................ 7
Materials List With measurements:..............................................................................................................................9
Mousetrap (provided by School):........................................................................................................................10
Physics of Mousetrap Car:...........................................................................................................................................11
Reducing Mechanical advantage:....................................................................................................................................................11
Wheels and Pulley system design with specifics:...........................................................................................................................11
Length of Lever:..............................................................................................................................................................................11
Calculating MA (Mechanical Advantage):.....................................................................................................................................11
Record of Production – Logbook................................................................................................................................14
Final Evaluation..................................................................................................................................................17

Statement of Intent:
To create and optimise a great mousetrap car design for long distance racing through utilising a mousetrap as
the power source of the vehicle.

The aims of the proposed research and design is to utilise correct materials and design to produce a mousetrap
car which is able to endure and travel the most distance in a long-distance race. In order to achieve this many
mechanical laws and concepts such as decreasing mechanical advantage must be effectively used and applied to
the mouse trap car. The aims of the research is to achieve a high distance length travelled in the race, maybe
around 20 metres or more. The research and designing process will involve 3D designing and animation on
Auto Desk Fusion 360 alongside with hand sketches of the developed model.

I am intending to make a mousetrap car for long distance which incorporates a pully system and utilises and
considers the concept of mechanical advantage and other Physical concepts such as rolling friction, weight and
measurement rotational inertia and conservation of mechanical energy to optimise and design the best long
distance racing mousetrap car.

This Mousetrap car will incorporate a pulley system which will drastically decrease the mechanical advantage,
allowing the energy from the mousetrap spring to transfer in a longer period of time and thus allowing the car to
travel more distance at a slower speed. The car will also incorporate a long lever, short in diameter axels and
long in diameter wheels to decrease mechanical advantage. Other concepts such as rotational inertia and friction
will be considered while attempting to create a car. To achieve a great design various research will be done on
several designs in order to acquire a great understanding of what materials to use in this design. Research and
developing the understanding of these physics concepts will also be crucial in creating and optimising a long
distance mousetrap car.

Research

Design 1: Medium Distance Car

Materials Required:
 (2) pieces of Cardboard (10cm x 25 cm)
 (4) DVD’s
 (4) 1/4L (1.51 cm) Beveled Faucet
Washers
 (2) 0.5 cm Dowels – 15.3 cm
 0.64 cm dowel, 25 cm long
 Straws
 Tape – Masking & or Duct
 zip ties
 String
 Hot Glu

Design 2: Long distance

- (4) 0.64 cm rubber/faucet washers

- (4) CDs
- Duct Tape
- Jumbo craft sticks (75-pack)
- (2) Mouse trap
- Scissors
- Straws
- String (Smallest size that can be found)
- Super glue
- Wood Glue
- (2) Wooden dowels 0.5cm
Design 3: Long distance

1) Mousetrap
(1) 6" x 1.5" x 0.5" Board (Body)
(2) 18" x 0.5" x 0.5" Stick (Legs)
(4) 2.75" Diameter mason jar lids (Wheels)
(2) 10-24 x 3.5" All threaded rods (Axles)
(8) 10-24 Nuts
(4) 1.25" Finish nails
(4) 0.5" Finish nails
(1) 12" Wire coat hanger
24" Fishing line
Hammer
(2) 3/8" or 10 mm Wrenches
Electrical Tape
Design 4: Speed
 Victor mousetrap
(1) pool noodle with small diameter
(1) long piece of balsa wood (Two lengths of 20.5 cm this balsa
wood.  Cut from one piece of balsa wood that is 0.64 cm thick and
2.54 cm wide)
slender copper tubing with diameter 0.4 cm
 (4) small screw nuts
 wing nut
JB-Weld
wood glue
electrical tape
 string, yarn, twine,

Tools:
 a pair of pliers
 hacksaw or knife (to cut pool noodle with)
 pipe cutters or something else to cut copper tubing

Design 5: Speed

 (2) Balsa wood side rails (20.3cm x 1.3 cm x

0.64 cm) with drill holes of 0.5 cm for axle
  (2) Brass axels (15cm x 0.5 cm tube)

  (1) Brass lever arm (15cm x 0.3 cm Tube)

  (4) CD's to use as wheels

  (8) Rubber CD spacers

  (4) Metal thrust washers

  (1) Victor Mousetrap

  (1) Zip tie to use as axle hook

 9. 92 cm Kevlar String or another thin string

Tools:

 . A hot glue gun and hot glue or super glue

  Needle-nose pliers
  Wire cutter
Design 6: Speed

 Compass (for drawing circles)

 Duct tape
 Durable string
 Elastic bands/rubber bands
 Eye hooks (4)
 Heavy cardboard or foam core
 Mousetrap
 Pliers
Tools:
 Ruler
 Thin dowels (2)
 Utility knife

Project Development
Sketches
First Sketch:
Detailed Sketch:
Materials List With measurements:
Body—White Foam Board (5mm thick) (Provided by school)
Left Side: 37 cm x 6cm
Right Side: 37 cm x 6cm
Front: 6 cm x 9 cm
Back: 6 cm x 9 cm
Top par for mousetrap: 10.5 cm x 9 cm

 4 x Wheels:
10x low friction bushings as Black Wiring Grommet with 0.95cm
inner diameter

4 x plastic washer bearing to tighten up CD wheel on Black Grommet

 4 x blank CDs (diameter 12 cm) as wheels

 Balloon excess around wheels as tyres to increase stability

and to reduce friction.

 Tape:
To tighten up bearing and wheels onto axles as I could not find specific sizes which perfectly fitted my
needs and to fix up mistakes in cutting up or flaws in design.
3 x Axles and Lever:
3 x [ around 9mm (diameter) with 14 cm (height) ]
axles with strong cocktail straws.

With pulley system: Lever diameter around 4 mm

with 16.5 cm height (wooden skewer material) and
rubber band hook

Without Pulley system: Lever diameter around 4mm

with 25 cm height (wooden skewer material) and
rubber band hook

Rope to attach to lever hook and to

pulley:
Nylon string around 45 cm

Pulley:
Plastic 9cm diameter with around 1.5 cm height(cut up in the middle
parts )

Mousetrap
(provided by School):
With

Length= 10mm
Width= 45mm
Height=100mm
Physics of Mousetrap Car:

Reducing Mechanical advantage:

The mechanical advantage is the ratio of the input and output forces that are used within a machine.
Mechanical advantage is a measure of the force amplification achieved by using a tool, mechanical device or
lever.
MA = Foutput / Finput
Or
MA=Linput/Loutput
mechanical advantage: the mechanical advantage [ma] is equal to the output force divided by the input force, or
the input length divided by the output length. For the purpose of simplicity we will be only using lengths.

Machines allow you to do work more easily by spreading your effort over a greater distance/time. A machine
with a mechanical advantage greater than 1 means that it allows you to produce an output force greater than
your applied input force. machine with a mechanical advantage less than 1 means that you must apply a greater
input force over a smaller distance compared to the outputs produced. For our scenario the mousetrap car must
travel long distance and thus smaller force needs to be applied over a greater distance, and thus our goal with
the concept of mechanical advantaged is to decrease it as much as possible.

Wheels and Pulley system design with specifics:

The pulley, which is a wheel and axle capable of lifting a load, applying a force, as well as changing direction
of a force.
Mechanical Advantage of a wheel and axle is the result of the ratio between distance "a" (the radius of the
wheel) and distance "b" (the radius of the axle). As the ratio increases the force or torque is amplified. As you
change the size of the wheel or axle then you change the mechanical advantage, as well as the amount of output
force. This same principal applies to our pulley, since it is also rotating and pulling.

The radius of the pulley is around 9 cm while the radius of the straw is around 9mm so:

By the formula of Mechanical advantage, the mechanical advantage of the pulley will be
L 9 mm 1
MA pulley = ¿ = =
Lout 90 mm 10

Length of Lever:
The vehicle includes the spring lever arm that is
attached to the spring to transfer the spring force to
the axle via a drive string. Class 1 and 2 levers
increase force output by sacrificing the distance the
force is applied. Class 3 levers increase the
distance the force is applied by sacrificing force
output. To determine the mechanical advantage of
a Class 3 lever, we calculate the ratio of the
distance from the fulcrum to the effort and the
fulcrum to the load.
Calculating MA (Mechanical Advantage):
Total Mechanical advantage is calculated by multiplying all parts are effected by the concept of mechanical
advantage:

Without Pulley:
9 mm
MA wheel = =0.075
120 mm

4 cm
MA Lever = =0.16
25 cm

Total Mechanical advantage= 0.012

1
With Pulley: MA pulley =
10
4 cm
MA Lever = ≈ 0.24
16.5 cm
9 mm
MA wheel = =0.075
120 mm

Total Mechanical advantage= 0.0018

Reducing Friction:

The mousetrap car experiences friction in two major

areas, and the results of each are very different.  The
first is the friction between the wheels of the
mousetrap car and the ground.  This type of friction
positively affects the motion of the vehicle, as it
allows the wheels to grip the ground, moving forward.
Without this friction between wheels and ground, the
wheels would simply spin without creating any
forward motion.  The second major source of friction
is the connection between the axle that is spun by the
mousetrap's unwinding, and the main body of the
vehicle.  The axle spins while the body of the car does
not, creating friction.  This friction adversely affects the motion of the vehicle, slowing the spin of the axle during and after the release
of the mousetrap.  The greater the friction between axle and body, the shorter the distance of travel.  So we need to decrease this type
friction in order to increase distance. This is going to be achieved by the bearing and bushing materials which are going to be placed
adjacent to all wheels and the pulley.
The balloon tire on the wheels provides the friction needed to
ensure the force moves the vehicle forward rather than just
spinning the wheels.

Rotational Inertia:
Rotational inertia effects both the travel distance and the
acceleration of a mousetrap car.
Rotational inertia is the resistance an object has to changes in its
state of rotation. For an object that is not rotating we commonly
talk about its inertia or its mass; the more mass an object has,
the more resistance the object will have to any change in it's
state of motion. Rotational inertia includes an objects mass and
the location of its mass with respect to it's point of rotation( in
our case the centre of or the middle of wheels and pulley). The
greater the distance between the average mass of a rotating
object and it's point of rotation means the greater the rotational inertia of the object (large wheels have more
rotational inertia then smaller wheels of same mass). The general formula for rotational inertia states that

I =m r 2
However, this formula changes depending on what shape
you are calculating for and since we are essentially using
disks for our pulley and wheels, then this formula would
become modified, instead

1
I = mr 2
2

Torque is a measure of the force that can cause an

object to rotate about an axis. Just as force is what
causes an object to accelerate in linear kinematics,
torque is what causes an object to acquire angular
acceleration. In this project we are specifically
concerned with dynamic torque which is essentially
when torque causes angular acceleration. This is
achieved when the applied force is not on the axis of
rotation, which is evident in our case as the wheels
and pulley are going to turning with angular
acceleration .
The more rotational inertia an object has the more
torque that will be required to change the objects state
of rotation. When building a mousetrap car for
distance the goal is to convert as much of the mouse
trap's starting energy into displace of the vehicle over
the greatest linear distance. The starting potential energy of the mousetrap will be needed to overcome the force
of friction acting against the vehicle's travel. A mousetrap car cannot move anywhere until the potential energy
of the mouse trap's spring puts energy into the wheels and changes their state of rotation from rest into motion;
the more rotational inertia a vehicle has the more energy that will be consumed and wasted just to get the
wheels turning. The wheel and tire convert the rotational force of the axle into the force that propels the vehicle.
Using wheels that have as little rotational inertia as possible is essential in creating a good long-distance
mousetrap car. Also, the best way to optimise in decreasing mechanical advantage and decreasing rotational
inertia is to decrease mass.

Calculation of Rotational Inertia:

Total Rotational Inertia of Mousetrap car = 3 x I axle +4 × I wheel + I pulley

1 1
I axle= mr 2= ∗0.05 kg∗0.009m=0.00015 kg m 2
3 3

1 1
I pulley = mr 2 = ∗0.2kg∗0.09=0.009 kg m 2
2 2

1 1
I wheel = mr 2 = ∗0.02 kg∗0.12=0.012 kg m 2
2 2

Total Rotational Inertia of Mousetrap car=0.05745 kg m^2

Conservation of mechanical energy:

Energy always follows one basic law called the Law of Conservation of Energy that states: Energy cannot be
created or destroyed but it can be changed from one form to another but the total amount of energy in a system
will remain constant. Loading the spring of a mouse trap stores potential energy and when that spring is
released the potential energy is turns into kinetic energy or the energy of motion but the total amount of energy
that the system starts with will always be the same as the energy the system ends with. In a perfect universe a
mousetrap vehicle would roll forever once the potential energy is changed into kinetic energy. But in our
universe, there is friction and in order to overcome friction your mousetrap car will have to do work. Friction
converts the energy of a moving objects into heat and sound and this will eventually cause a moving object to
come to a stop. Energy is not destroyed by this process, but it is being converted into heat and sound and thus it
is essentially wasted. The total energy of a system at any moment in time is always the sum of the potential
energy, the kinetic energy, and the total of the heat and sound energy.

Record of Production – Logbook

Date Work Completed 

Term 2 Week Researched on 4 different Mousetrap Car designs with their respective
4 (Online materials. Each design was were either made for Long-distance, or Short
Lessons) Distance Racing. In this research the first sketch of the Mousetrap car for Long
(Mousetrap distance was also produced with ideas for materials and the design of the
Car Mousetrap Car. Some research was also conducted on the Physics concepts of
Research)
Mousetrap Cars such as decreasing Mechanical advantage, reducing friction,
reducing rotational inertia, reducing weight and the transfer of Mechanical
energy across a mousetrap car.

Term 2 Week Was introduced to Fusion 360 and basic concepts within the CAD Software.
5 Lesson 1 Watched a video by Lars Christensen and learnt how to use interface,
Monday 25th commands and how to develop, draw and create basic designs for 3D objects
of May such as boxes, cylinders and holes. After finishing the video and fully
understanding all the concepts which were taught, I Started to work on
developing the Long-distance mousetrap car in Fusion 360. Firstly, I design
the basic such as the rectangular body and developed some ideas on how to
implement new features such as the axels, wheels and pulley in future lessons.

Term 2 Week Found a premade 3D version of a mousetrap online and decided to use it for
5 Lesson 2 the mousetrap car design. Started to modify the measurement to make it fit and
Wednesday scale properly to the 3D model being used. Also started to edit the body/ frame
27th of May of mousetrap car and added holes and wheels to the design.

Term 2 Week Mostly worked on fully designing wheels, holes and axles alongside with
5 Lesson 3 adding some changes to the mousetrap to make it practical. This included
Friday 29th of adding the spring lever arm which actually sets of the mechanism and adding
May some other details and changes to the mousetrap. I also started to fit the
mousetrap onto the mousetrap car and created a base for it to stand on.
Started to find a practical pulley online for the 3d model. I also tried to scale it
down so it would fit the mousetrap car.
Also tried to position mouse car properly so that the spring lever arm would be
connected to the pulley axle.

Term 2 Week Started working on Stem FOLIO document and planning out what components
6 Lesson 1& it contains such as statement of intent, research, project development and final
2(Double evaluation. Started writing statement of intent and adding research which was
Period) done previously in week 4. However, 2 more mousetrap cars with their
Tuesday 2nd respective materials needed to be research so I added this to the research
of June section of the Stem FOLIO Document.
Also did some work on wheels, axels and pulley.

Term 2 Week Did some refurbishing to design and made the Fusion 360 timeline look less
6 Lesson 3 abstruse and accessible. Deleted and added some parts of the designing
Friday 5th of process to make it easier to access and change in order to properly scale to a
June model. While dditing some lengths and furbishing the general look and design
of the mousetrap car I took note of certain axle lengths, wheel lengths and the
materials I should use for the mousetrap car.
Decided materials for wheels, axels, string, and was sceptical about body and
pulley material.

Term 2 Week Laptop did not have charge to I conducted some research on the physics of
7 (No Lesson mousetrap cars and what concepts are found and considered in a moving
1 Public mousetrap car. Added the several Physics aspects such as Mechanical
Holiday) advantage, friction, rotational inertia and conservation of mechanical energy
Lesson 2 10th to a new section in project development called the “physics of Mousetrap
of June Cars”.
Also did some more planning on what information should go where in this
section and how the document was going to turn out on the end.

Term 2 Week We were give foam boards and thus I decided to make the body out of foam,
7 Lesson 3 however I was still unsure of what material to use for the pulley.
Friday 12th of Started putting design and measurements on Foam board. Planned out how
June Mousetrap car would look like and realised that it would be too long. Changed
and adjusted the dimensions to suffice the amount of foam which was
originally given. Double checked the the measurements were correct and that
the sides would be properly connected in 3-dimensional space.
Term 2 Week Fully finished designing body on foam board. I firstly double checked my
8 Lesson 1& measurements from last lesson and used a long ruler to make everything
2(Double straight and organised on the foam board. I also implemented box joints or
Period) connectors to the all sides to make the mousetrap car more stable when
Tuesday 16th connected. I have also fully planned out how the mousetrap car design is going
of June to look and what is going to go where. Also double checked that measurement
and box joint measurements are correct to in order to successfully execute the
cutting and joining process of the various sides. I also created a key to specify
what joints should be kept and what joints should be caught off. The joints
must be alternating between kept and cut off on connecting sides to have a
successful joint between the two sides.

Term 2 Week Started to cut up specified parts with box cutter.

8 Lesson 3 Also started to cut up joints with scissors as it is difficult to cut small parts
Friday 19th of with the box cutter and there is a lot of demand for the box cutter while cutting
June at school.
Planning to fully cut of excess joints and stick parts together next lesson and to
start 3d printing pully.
Ms Sarna suggested that we could print some parts of our Mousetrap cars so I
decided that I should print the pulley as the material for the body would be
weak compared to the metal material usually used for pulleys.

Sunday 21st Finished up most of the physics part of the Portfolio. Also wrote record of
of June production up to date. Edited up some parts of the Mousetrap car 3D design.

Term 2 Absent on this day.

Week 9
Lesson 1
Monday 22nd
of June

Term 2 Week Continued to work on my cutting up of the projects and asked my teacher if I
9 Lesson 2 could 3D print my pulley. I also worked on my FOLIO and made sure that my
Wednesday record of production was up to date.
24th of June

Term 2 week Worked on finishing and tiding up portfolio in class. Did not receive the 3D
9 Lesson 3 design of Pulley. Went to Bunnings after school to collect Materials. Bought
Friday 26th of Black Grommet at 0.95 cm diameter, Nylon string and pulley.
June
I could not find a suitable material with a suitable size
for the spring lever arm and axles at Bunnings. I
decided to use some strong cocktail straws as the lever
and a wooden straw as the lever, with rubber bands as
the hook, materials which was available to me at home. I
later went home and created the lever.

I also started to create the holes in my body and cut out all of my parts.

Saturday 27th Put together wheel parts and created the first wheel, which then the first design
of June was copied into 4 more wheels. In the first version I utilised cocktail straw,
balloon, tape, plastic washer and grommet. In this construction I put the
wheels inside a Grommet with a washer to properly tighten up and gain grip. I
also attached tape to the axle so that the grommet would tightly fit on the axle
and so that the wheel would turn when the axle turned.

I also created the pulley system in a similar way to the wheel, however I kept
everything more centred. I did not use bearings for the actual pulley, however I
later used them on the outside of the body in order to keep the straw in place
while the pulley would be moving.
 I also coloured my mousetrap car with some colours to add variety. I glued up
the parts of my mousetrap car with paper glue and let it dry for the night.

Sunday 28th Today I glued on the mousetrap onto the base and I also added the wheel
of June components and the pulley system into the mousetrap car.

I then attached the string onto the car

and started testing. The mousetrap car
with the pulley decently worked on
the first attempt and travelled around
1.8 m, however, it got worse try after
and try and stopped working. As I ran
into troubles when testing the
mousetrap Car work with the pulley I
then tried several variations of lengths
of the spring lever arm, pulley
position and back wheel position,
however none of them seemed to
work. By testing the other variations
in mid-air and seeing how they turn
without any static friction, I realised
that the original pulley design was the
 best one with the lowest Mechanical advantage, however the flaw in this
design was the strength of the mousetrap. After seeing this flaw, I decided to
leave the pulley system out of the car and instead just adjust the string to attach
to the back wheels. Then I created a string system for the back wheels so that I
could easily tighten up and retest the car. The car went for around a maximum
distance of 7 metres without the pulley system. However, I believe that with a
stronger mousetrap with a greater spring constant, the mousetrap car would
have at least travelled a distance of 20 m.

From the following videos we can observe my findings:

As you can see in this video, the mousetrap Car only travels in mid-air due to
friction and the low force of the spring lever arm and mousetrap. I even tried
removing some of the pulley mass by cutting some parts to reduce the
rotational inertia of the pulley, however it made little to no difference on the
distance travelled by the car.

Without use of Pulley with distance:

As you can see the mousetrap car

travelled a distance of about 7 m
without the pulley.

Tuesday 30th Polished up Folio and wrote Record of Production up to date. I added all the
of June images, videos of the Mousetrap Car required in the Folio. I made sure that
the formatting was correct, and double checked that all my written work in the
Folio made sense.
 However, I did not bring the Mousetrap Car to school as I was scared that it
would be destroyed. So, I decided to submit videos and pictures of the
Mousetrap Car online.
In the end I submitted the Long-Distance Mousetrap Car Folio and images and
videos of the car moving.

Final Evaluation
Final Results:
The Car could travel around 7 meters without a pulley system.
The Car could not travel on ground with pulley system.
Video:
Mousetrap Car with pulley on first attempt( around 1.8m): Mousetrap Car without use of pulley:

Pictures:
Mousetrap Car with Pulley Mousetrap Car without Pulley:

Self-Evaluation:

Research: The research on material and different mousetrap car designs which I conducted was adequate,
however it was not helpful to the extent which I liked it to be. I believe more research should have been
conducted on what I wanted to use for the car, rather than what others used. For example, in my mousetrap car
the pulley system did not work due to the weakness of the mousetrap. I should have at least tried to inquire or
research the strength or spring constant of the mousetrap car. Then I could have utilized some physics equations
and formulae to figure out if the pulley system would work or not. However due to lack of information about
the materials which was available to me, especially the mousetrap, I was not able to successfully design and
make my original pulley design work.

Project Development:
I enjoyed designing the mousetrap car however it could have been improved by having more information about
the materials which were going to be used and the resources which we actually had available to us for this task.
We should have also known the specifics measurements and values of each of these parts properly. I could have
also improved by practical abilities in cutting and gluing as I believe some parts were not correctly cut up and
or could have been cut up in a better way. I will also make sure to account for human error in cutting and
measuring in the future. The Car could not move on the ground with the pulley; however, it could move
forward in midair. This indicates that the spring on the mousetrap is not strong enough to pull the car forward
on ground. Due to this the Pulley system was taken out for normal car use on the small mousetrap. The Car
could travel around 7 meters without a pulley system. In order to fix the pulley system or to make it usable a
stronger mousetrap could have been utilized. This issue could have also been resolved with more careful
designing and acquiring materials as the back axle may or may not have stayed stationary due to the fact that
there was not some sort of small pulley on the back axle. I should have been more aware of this and should
have conduced more research on the role of each part of the car in general. I believe the whole process of
designing and cutting up could have been improved by having or calculating the exact specifics of each part and
its role in the design as a whole.