Racer Recommendations

Things that went well for our car was the design was overall fairly sound. The axles were lined up pretty well and it went mostly straight. The large back wheels and smaller front wheels worked really well. The big wheels propelled it farther and kept it going longer than small wheels would have. The design didn't have a lot, if any wind resistance which was good. It was also heavy enough to keep up its velocity after the string stopped turning the axle but not too heavy that it was impossible to start.

My recommendations for future physics students building a mousetrap car would be:
- make sure to use large wheels in the back with smaller, easily turning wheels in the front. The larger wheels will help it to go farther.
- have the mousetrap in a position that is easily accessible and easy to set.
- Make sure to have some weight to your car so it keeps going when the string stops turning the axle, but not too heavy that it takes a lot of power to start moving.
- use a string that is flexible and easy to wrap around the axle. It needs to have resistance with the axle so it doesn't slip off right away.

Results From Competition Day

Our mousetrap vehicle didn't really do as good as we hoped it would. Its distances were 6.31m, 4.7m, and 6.02m. Its average was 5.7m. We had it going 9.5m the day before but something seemed to go wrong and it didn't do as well.
In the drag race it didn't do too bad. Its time was 5:22 seconds which was fourth place.

If I could modify my car design I would have even bigger wheels in the back. The bigger the wheels the farther it will go. I would also make the string stronger and a lot more flexible and resistant so it would turn the axle longer before sliding off. I would have also made the front wheels sturdier.

If I could build a new car I would have a smaller and lighter design because I think it would have gone a lot easier. I would have had really big wheels in the back and one small wheel in the front. I would make it out of wood so it would carry some weight but not too much. My string would not be a fishing line, but a sturdier, more resistant string.

On our car we could tweak it by using a stronger, sturdier string that would have had a lot more resistance on the axle. We could have tightened up the wheels so they didn't wobble as much.