Mousetrap powered vehicle- with fast acceleration

[yellowbus]

Hi, i'm designing a mouse-trap powered vehicle that only travels 5ft. and stops. What's the best way to make one with very fast acceleration but low velocity (it can't go over 5 ft). would using mini cds over regular cds for the wheels help?

[modest]

If the idea is to only go 5 feet then stop quickly I wouldn’t be using CDs for wheels as they don’t have much traction. I think (it’s been a while since I’ve seen one of these) people attach a lever to the kill bar of the mousetrap and a string to the lever. The string is then wound around some kind of spindle or around the axel itself maybe. But, if it’s the lever / string design you’re going with then you would want to adjust the lever to be as short as possible and still allow you to go 5 feet. This will give you as much acceleration as possible. A longer lever would give you less acceleration and allow the car to travel farther. The length of the string can be adjusted to make the car go the appropriate distance and then stop (when the string is completely unwound from the spindle). If the traction on the wheels is good and the force on the string is sufficient that the string won’t rewind on the spindle - then the stopping could happen rather suddenly.

 

Yeah, I think this would give you the best acceleration / deceleration profile.

1 - as short a lever as possible allowing you to travel the entire distance

2 - traction enough to not skid when accelerating or braking. I guess CDs might be enough - maybe - would depend on the floor.

 

I’ve never built one of these so if anyone wants to correct me - please go ahead

 

-modest