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Mousetrap Car Project Technical Memo Template

The group built a mousetrap car out of Legos to travel more than 15 feet using only the power of a mousetrap. They tested the car on different carpets and recorded the results of 7 trials, making changes between trials such as wheel size and adding pipes to improve distance and stopping ability. The best performance was 12 feet of distance traveled. They concluded that insufficient research and last minute work led to the car not meeting the 15 foot target, and they learned lessons about time management, communication, friction, weight and balance from the project.

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314 views

Mousetrap Car Project Technical Memo Template

The group built a mousetrap car out of Legos to travel more than 15 feet using only the power of a mousetrap. They tested the car on different carpets and recorded the results of 7 trials, making changes between trials such as wheel size and adding pipes to improve distance and stopping ability. The best performance was 12 feet of distance traveled. They concluded that insufficient research and last minute work led to the car not meeting the 15 foot target, and they learned lessons about time management, communication, friction, weight and balance from the project.

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Mousetrap Car Project Technical Memo

Patricia A. Delph, Jad Gore, and Matthew Watkins


Section: 04

Date: 9/30/15

Introduction:
Our goal is to build a device that will travel more than fifteen feet and, at same time, be
able to stop at any distance within the fifteen feet. Our limitation is that we need to depend on the
power supplied by a mousetrap. We built our car from Legos because Matthew already had it. He
also have an abundance of the materials so we could adjust our car as much as we see fit. The
rest were borrowed from friends.

Concept and Benchmarking:


Concepts Legos Wood Aluminum

Selection Criteria Cheap yet easy to use and adjust

Cost 1 -1 -1

Difficulty of Implementation
1 -1 -1

Creativity 1 -1 1

Efficiency 1 0 1

Weight 1 -1 -1
Size 1 1 -1

Practical 1 1 1

Safety 1 0 0

Durability with Average Usage


1 0 -1

Sum of +1's 9 2 3

Sum of 0's 0 3 1

Sum of -1's 0 4 5

Net Score 9 -2 -2

Rank Best Worst Worst

Solution:
We chose to
use the Legos for
our mousetrap car.
Test Plan:
We tested it on the carpet of SDC and the Pearson Dorm, to ensure the results will
accurately predict the Competition Day’s results.

Precision and Accuracy:


Raw Data:
Trial # Changes Made Off Track (in) Distance (ft) Reasons
1 Assemble it together 5 5 The original car
2 Change back wheels to smaller wheels 0 0 To reduce the friction
3 Changed back wheels to bigger wheels 5 7 No traction, the car stayed in place
4 Added front pipe to the car 3 2 To give the car more time to pull the string
5 Added back pipe to the car 2 7 To ensure that the front pipe won't touch the floor, thus to slow down the car
6 Made the pipes bigger 1 10 To give the car more time to pull the string
7 Change the string to stool wire 1 5 The string that Tricia brought was keeping breaking
8 Change back to the string but braided 1 12 The stool didn’t pull the car very well

Test Plans:
We have a plan,

 We meet whenever we are available every two to three days.


 We tested it on the carpet of Student Development Center and the Pearson Dorm, to
ensure the results will accurately predict the Competition Day’s results.
 We recorded the data and any changes we made to the car.

Test Results:
The car’s performance on the distance was poor as it only went between 11 to 12 feet.
However, this was expected from testing. The target acquisition were excellent because the car
stopped at the target most of the time. The car’s overall performance was average, 77%.

Conclusion:
The car was successful for reach the target at 9 ½ - 10 feet, but the car failed to surpass
15 feet. We had insufficient research, because we did not manage our time properly. We
assumed that we would have plenty of time since we already had the supplies. We also did not
account for the different types of carpet. The Slaughter Hall’s carpet were significantly different
than the ones we tested on.

Lesson learned:
We learned that we need to manage our time better and communicate better. We learned about
the friction and how it works. We also learned about the weight and balance and see how they related in
the car. This was our first time to do the testing on our own without any professor’s instructions. And we
learned that we should have not to do things at last minute because if we did, then there is a mistake or
error in the work.

References:
Gantt chart format by Mr. Olles
Memo guideline format by Mr. Olles
Concept chart format by Mr. Olles
Precision and Accuracy chart by Mr. Olles
CAD by using SolidWorks

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