UNION COUNTY MAGNET HIGH SCHOOL

FOR
SCIENCE, MATHEMATICS AND
TECHNOLOGY

Physics I Self-Propelled Car Lab

Alex Tobias, Shai Bejerano, Marisa Haggar, Kenneth
Hoffman
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Teacher
Class
Date

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MHS PHYSICS I LAB REPORT RUBRIC

Value
(1 – 4 or NG
for not
graded)

Purpose /
Objective

Expectation(s)

Materials

Procedure(s)

Observations/Data

Analysis of Data

Conclusion

Grammar &
Spelling

Lab Participation

TOTAL

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PURPOSE:
We have learned from Newton’s Third Law, for every action force,
there is an equal and opposite reaction force. To illustrate this law,
you will design a car for less than $5.00. It will be powered by a
mechanical device (no electrical devices may be used).

EXPECTATIONS: We expect our mousetrap car to travel at least one meter, and, as
we are quickly releasing the spring potential energy, we expect it to
travel the required meter fairly quickly.

MATERIALS:
• Mousetrap
• 8 Poker chips
• 7 Jumbo Craft Sticks
• 2 K’nex Yellow Rods
• 4 K’nex Yellow Connector
• 4 K’nex Black Rotational Connector
• 11/2 Sticks of Hot Glue
• 1ft of Green string
• 1 Brass Rod
• 4 Rubber Boe-Bot treads

PROCEDURE: 1. Break and glue craft sticks into a frame, layering them
towards the place where the mousetrap is to be placed. The
other side should have a hole with which to tie the string to
the axle.
2. Glue the K’nex rods to the underside of the car.
3. Glue two poker chips together. Do this three more times.
4. Attach the poker chips (now “wheels”) to the ends of both the
rods.
5. Put rubber treads on the wheels to create more friction
6. Attach the mousetrap to the car using hot glue.
7. Take out the original lever of the mousetrap and replace it
with a longer lever to create a lever arm
8. Attach the pin to the back rod using hot glue
9. Tie a piece of thread to the pin and the lever of the
mousetrap
10. Wind the mousetrap back, release it, and watch it go.

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11. Lay out tape at 1 meter intervals

12. Test out the car and see how far it goes
13. To find velocity, have a designated stopping point, for our
purposes, we set it at a meter. We decided that it would be
best to have one person release, one person time, and one
stop.
14. To find velocity, divide distance over time. To find average
velocity, add up velocities and divide by the number of tests.

OBSERVATIONS: Trial Runs for mousetrap car

Run Time Distance Velocity
1 1.34 s 1m .7463 m/s
2 1.039s 1m .9625 m/s
3 .978s 1m 1.0225 m/s
4 .994s 1m 1.0060 m/s
5 1.162 s 1m .8605 m/s

The formula we used for calculating velocity is V= d/t. To

calculate average velocity, we used VA= (V1+V2+V3+V4+V5)/5. VA
= .91956.

ANALYSIS OF
DATA: Analyze your data and graphs to see if any trends can be
established or calculated. Calculate percentage error and compare
it with what you expected or calculated the results to be. Answer
any questions given in the lab write up in paragraph form.

CONCLUSION:
The conclusion should begin with a topic sentence that reflects the
purpose. It should also include a summary of the final
experimentally determined values and/or results. Your conclusion
should include a brief explanation of how the results were obtained
from the data.

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A statement of the percentage error should include whether your

expected results matched your experimental results. List the
sources of the error and how they affected the results. If this part is
done in the Analysis of Data section than cross reference to that
section (i.e. “The percent error for this experiment was 20.2% as
calculated in the Analysis of Data section. Our experimental results
did not match our expected results. An explanation for the sources
of error can be found in the Analysis of Data section.”)

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