Post Race Reflection

Race Day did not start off on a good not for our team. We went to test our car before the distance trials and the string snapped off of the mouse trap. All of our prep time was spent on trying to attach a new string to the mousetrap. Our vehicle went an average of 5.67metres on race day (6th place) and finished 4th in the drag race with a time of 5.22 seconds. This was also disappointing because the day before our vehicle had gone about 9 meters on average.

If I could modify the car design I would do a few things. First off I would use different front wheels that fit the axle better so that the car would go straighter and the wheels would spin properly rather than adding resistance. Secondly I would place the back wheels farther apart so that it would be easier to wind the string around the axle as well as the wheels would not rub the PVC pipe and cause friction.

If I could build a new car I would use a very lightweight wooden body with the mousetrap set towards the front end instead of using a PVC pipe with the mousetrap in the middle. The lightweight piece of wood would be easier to work with than the pipe and it would not weigh as much. Instead of Using CD's on an axle that was too small I would use the idea we had used originally the Knex wheel. It is plastic on plastic which has very low resistance to roll and could be easily adjusted. I would keep the drive wheels as records for a little bit of weight and for the maximum distance. However, I would use a metal rod for the axle to reduce friction between the wood of the body and the axle.

We could have made our car perform better by taking time to find the best length of string (shorter) so that it would release better (not rewind and stop). Also we should have found a way to reduce the friction between the axle and the holes in the pipe so that the drive wheels would take less energy to rotate(decrease their resistance to roll).