Day 9

Mike is missing in action today, so I worked on lightening the wheels. Maybe we should use LPs...

Day 8

Today, we are working on making bigger wheels for our car. Last class, we re-designed the string draw system, which allows our car to coast farther after the mousetrap has finished pulling the string. We tested it and hit 6 meters. With bigger wheels, the car should go farther because it will have more meters of development.

Day 7

Today, with our new cardboard WE REACHED 5 METERS. THAT'S RIGHT, 5 WHOLE METERS. However, the car decelerates when the string is almost off the spool, so a new spool design is in the works, with and advanced string disconnect system. Even bigger wheels are also a possibility.

Day 6

Today we're experimenting with wheels made of cardboard, which have a much greater diameter than the Lego wheels. However, the longer arm can't pull hard enough to roll the big wheels, so we are switching back to our previous length arm. We have also shortened our frame and removed all mechanical gearing.

Day six

Yesterday we doubled the length of our lever arm to improve power transfer. Today we are working on getting better traction, but we need bigger wheels. Bigger wheels will also allow the car to travel farther for each revolution of the spool. We are also experimenting with multiple gearing options.

Day 5

Yesterday we fixed our draw string problem, its still not great, but better than it was. Today we are going to work on the wheels getting traction. right now it just peels out and doesnt go anywhere. So were going to add weight to the front and try to get it working really well.

Day 4

We got our days all figured out now, yesterday we tested our mousetrap car after our post, and found that the ribbon we were using didnt have enough friction on the axle so that sometimes it would unwind without actually turning the axle. When it would work, the wheels would spin because most of the weight is over the back. we added a hammer for extra weight and it moved better. So today we are trying to fix the weight problem and the draw string problem. we have a new string picked out and we will probably have to add some weight to the front so that the wheels hook up better