Mousetrap Car Project
This project introduced me into what type of projects we would be doing for the rest of the year because this was our first physics project. We had to make cars out of materials that we found around the classroom; The only thing we were allowed to use to propel the car was just one mousetrap. The idea behind this is that every group has only one mousetrap that they had to find a way to utilize to the fullest to make their car travel further than any other teams. Each car had to travel at least two meters in order to pass; it had to find a way to overcome basic obstacles that would slow it down such as friction, opposing force, or traction. The image below is a picture of the initial and final design of our car.
In the end, our car ended up traveling about five meters; we did not travel the furthest, but I was very proud of what we came up with. I enjoyed this project very much because this was the first project that I was ever asked to complete that made me think outside of the box and use materials that you would not normally think of using. It challenged me in many ways, especially finding a way to put it all together, test it, make any revisions, and test it again all in time. This project made me grow academically because we had to learn how to counteract Newtons three laws of Physics so that the car doesn't slow down.