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Discussion for Mousetrap Vehicle C.

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2010 Thread

Now that I'm done as a competitor in Science Olympiad I would like to pass of the stuff that I have left for this event. The winning team used a compound lever design which allowed for a shorter length arm to pull off an equal amount of string from an axel that provides the movement for the vehicle there will be many more like that one this year is my guess. If people are having some difficulty understanding how this concept works here is a YouTube video that shows this in a very basic way [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG7rm5iZYEs ]. The shorter the arm the more pull you get thus faster times. I wish I would have pursued this concept last year, I found that video last year but didn't really try to use it.

My vehicle had a bunch of potential but friction killed it!!! this is the most thing to build into you vehicle to limited friction is key to fast times. I had run my axel through ball Barings and it would spin free but because the axel was made from 3/8 steel it slowed quickly. The vehicle weighted exactly 1lb with the drive axel weighing the by far the most. That being said the best time it ever got was 15 seconds and stopped on avg 1cm from perfect. My Vehicle had a long arm 30cm which if using the compound lever could be significantly shorter thus faster.

One tip I STRONGLY urge avoid Tomcat mousetraps yes the can be a little stronger but that advantage doesn't last long [longevity is better on Victor]. Another thing to consider is the placement/ orientation of the spring, not all traps are the same or even as strong as they can be, see if you can find the points that make your traps the strongest, every little bit counts in an event like this.

Thanks for sharing what you learned with everyone! I really like that compound lever idea. If I were to end up doing this event, I'd try to make the vehicle as light as possible. Well, within reason, since you still need traction.

Hey guys, I just posted a really long article in the Mousetrap Vehicle wiki entitled "A Design from 2009-2010". Check it out and tell me what you think I should improve on. I don't know how this compares to this year's rules but it should give you all a good start. I don't know how to add pictures though...

masterhat wrote:Hey guys, I just posted a really long article in the Mousetrap Vehicle wiki entitled "A Design from 2009-2010". Check it out and tell me what you think I should improve on. I don't know how this compares to this year's rules but it should give you all a good start. I don't know how to add pictures though...

That's really helpful, here is a webpage with some links for more help on adding pictures: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index ... 943AAeKLWm

masterhat wrote:Hey guys, I just posted a really long article in the Mousetrap Vehicle wiki entitled "A Design from 2009-2010". Check it out and tell me what you think I should improve on. I don't know how this compares to this year's rules but it should give you all a good start. I don't know how to add pictures though...

If you want you could give me or robot the pictures and we could add them for you.

Would you mind at all if we made your Design a separate page, in the way that we have DS's MPC on it's own page. The MTV page would link directly to it.

Masterhat, how does the MTV in the wiki picture reverse and go in the other direction? Also, was that included in the wiki description?

starpug wrote:

masterhat wrote:Hey guys, I just posted a really long article in the Mousetrap Vehicle wiki entitled "A Design from 2009-2010". Check it out and tell me what you think I should improve on. I don't know how this compares to this year's rules but it should give you all a good start. I don't know how to add pictures though...

If you want you could give me or robot the pictures and we could add them for you.

Would you mind at all if we made your Design a separate page, in the way that we have DS's MPC on it's own page. The MTV page would link directly to it.

I'm not really sure what that means...

illusionist wrote:Masterhat, how does the MTV in the wiki picture reverse and go in the other direction? Also, was that included in the wiki description?

I classified it as a category 3 car meaning that there is one string that is wrapped around the axle and halfway through the turns it reverses direction around the pin described in final assembly.

masterhat wrote:

starpug wrote:

masterhat wrote:Hey guys, I just posted a really long article in the Mousetrap Vehicle wiki entitled "A Design from 2009-2010". Check it out and tell me what you think I should improve on. I don't know how this compares to this year's rules but it should give you all a good start. I don't know how to add pictures though...

If you want you could give me or robot the pictures and we could add them for you.

Would you mind at all if we made your Design a separate page, in the way that we have DS's MPC on it's own page. The MTV page would link directly to it.

I'm not really sure what that means...

It means the design wouldn't be on the Mousetrap Vehicle page, it would instead have it's own separate page and be linked to the Mousetrap vehicle page

illusionist wrote:Masterhat, how does the MTV in the wiki picture reverse and go in the other direction? Also, was that included in the wiki description?

I classified it as a category 3 car meaning that there is one string that is wrapped around the axle and halfway through the turns it reverses direction around the pin described in final assembly.[/quote]
Oh ok, sorry. That makes sense.