1. The South Florida Industry Partners Education Mousetrap Car Design Seminar
Presented by: Glenn N. Cunningham, P.E. Senior Associate Hazen and Sawyer, P.C.

2. Objectives of the Design Seminar:
To define and explore concepts of the SECME Mousetrap car enabling our students to:
Develop critical thinking skills, a solid science and math foundation with practical application and competitive excitement
Design and build a mousetrap car that satisfies the rules
Know the rules and scoring formulas
Know the elements of the design required
The Technical Report
The Technical Drawing
The Competition
To exchange ideas in a common forum - industry, college, coordinators, parents and students

3. What is a mousetrap car?
Opportunity to learn elements of a good design while experiencing the thrill of competition
Car with the body of a mousetrap propelled by the force of a spring
Not a mice catcher
Economical way to complete a design for a few dollars/unit
Your ticket to Nationals… as a winner

4. What are the components of a mousetrap car?
Victor mousetrap
Three or four wheels
Gears (driver and follower gears)
Bail and bail string
Washers and plastic tubing ends
Creativity and practice

5. What does the mousetrap car look like?
Mousetrap on wheels?
NASA moon buggy?
Anything your imagination wants it to look like
Your creativity will make the difference

6. An approved mousetrap car does not look like these:
Mousetrap base cannot be altered in any way
No batteries or external power is permitted
The VICTOR plastic model mousetrap is not allowed
Refer to the “Survival Guide”

7. How does the mousetrap car work?
The spring on the mousetrap car is tensioned (energized) by winding the bail-string unto the drive-shaft of the driver mechanism
When released, the tensioned spring causes angular rotation on the drive-shaft, thus turning the rear wheels and producing linear motion on the mousetrap car

8. What are gears? Toothed wheels – simple machines
Most common are “spur gears” (commonly used on mousetrap cars)
Used to transfer force, increase or reduce linear distance traveled, increase or reduce speed, and change direction of rotary motion

9. Why do we need gears? – Consider a mousetrap car without gears
The energy stored in the spring is released into the wheels in an instant, producing a big bang, and spinning wheels trying to move the car at a high speed
The result is usually a fast start and not much distance covered

10. Why do we need gears? – Consider a mousetrap car with gears
The energy stored in the spring is released in a steady controlled way
The result is usually a constant speed and more distance covered

11. How do gears work? - Consider a design using two gears
The large gear is the driver gear and is mounted on a drive-shaft
The small gear is the follower gear and is mounted on the drive wheel axle

12. How do gears work? - Consider a design using two gears
The driver gear is a 40 tooth spur gear and the follower gear is a 8 tooth spur gear
The gear ratio is….40:8 or … 5:1
A gear ratio of 5:1 means that every-time the bail-string turns the drive-shaft, the gears produce five revolutions on the wheels
Therefore, the car has the potential to travel five times the distance of a car designed without gears

13. How does gear ratio relate to distance traveled?
Consider same design using two gears:
Driver gear = 40 tooth; follower gear = 8 tooth
Total gear ratio = 5:1
Diameter of drive wheel = 2.5-inch
Linear distance traveled / revolution = (2.5 x 3.14) = 7.85 inch/rev
Converting, 7.85 inches X (2.54 cm/inch) = cm/rev
Target distance = 25 meters = 2500 cm
Required drive axle rotation = cm / (19.94 cm/rev x 5) = 25.0 rev

14. Can we calculate how our mousetrap car is likely to perform?
Yes…..We can calculate the expected performance of our car because:
We can design the length of our bail-string, gear ratio, wheel sizes, and calculate the expected distance traveled
We know the length and weight of our car
We can do the calculation !!

15. What about the technical drawing and report?
The Technical Drawing and Report are required as part of the submittal package – without either the entry will be disqualified
A good Technical Drawing and Report can earn 50 points each (refer to “Survival Guide”)
An entry could win the actual race, but lose the overall competition because of mediocre or poor performance in the Technical Drawing and Report
Follow the rules in the “Survival Guide” - Every point earned may make the difference between first and second place

16. What about the layout of the technical drawing?
Sample layout:

17. Constructing a mousetrap car
We are confident that everyone here can build a mousetrap car
To demonstrate our confidence………
We are asking you , everyone, to go back to your respective schools and help your students build a mousetrap car…………………. Here is HOW!!

18. Building a mousetrap car – materials required
Mousetrap (wood victor)
Balsa wood strips (1/4-inch sq.)
Wood glue (super glue)
Wood dowels (1/8-inch dia.)
Leggo gears (40 tooth and 8 tooth)
Wheels (2-inch and 1-inch dia.)
Washers (type No 6)
Tubing (1/8-inch inner dia.)
Grease

19. Building a mousetrap car – tools required
Tool box
Hammer
Small hand-saws
Rulers
Scissors
Exacto knives (utility knives)
Screw-drivers (flathead and phillips)
Drill and drill-bits
Drummels
Pliers (needle-nose and standard)
Soldering iron and solder
Hot glue gun and glue sticks
Tape measure
Misc. attachments

20. Building a mousetrap car – a basic design:
A basic design, using gears, is presented to provide hands-on instructions on building a mouse-trap car.
A basic design, not using gears, can also be completed by deleting “Step No 5, Fourth Mark”, and also noting that the “Third Mark” would become the location of the driver wheel axle

21. Building a mousetrap car – preparing the mousetrap:1
Hold mousetrap firmly on hard surface
Remove all accessories not required (bait-hook, locking lever and fasteners)
Use needle-nose pliers to open gap on loop at end of bail arm. Straighten bail carefully (bail will break at weakened 90-degree bends) 2 3

22. Building a mousetrap car – prepare wood-frames: axles, gears:
Cut 3 pieces for axles from the 1/8-inch dowel: (two – 9 cm long and one – 10 cm long)
Cut 4 pieces for car frames from the 1/4-inch balsa: (four – 21 cm long)
Glue 2 pieces for the car frame together. Repeat this for the other 2 pieces, to form two – 1/2-inch x 1/4-inch pieces
Label each car frames as shown: T – Top, B – Bottom (on the 1/4-inch faces); and I – Inside, O – Outside (on the 1/2-inch faces)

23. Building a mousetrap car – mark wood-frames: axles, gears:
Holding one side of the car frame, (with O - Outside marking facing up), insert 4 markings in the following places:
First mark 1 cm from end of car frame Use an axle to make an impression into the frame, 2 mm below the center-line of the frame. (This is the location of the front wheel axle)
Second mark 12 cm from same end of car frame (This is the location of the rear-end of mousetrap) Note that the red “V” is located at the rear-end of mouse-trap

24. Building a mousetrap car – mark wood-frames: axles, gears:
Continued…..
Third mark 15 cm from same end of car frame Use an axle to make an impression into the frame, 2 mm above the center-line of the frame. (This is the location of the driver gear axle)
Fourth mark To complete this, place the large gear over the 15 cm mark. With the large gear held in place, engage the small gear. Use an axle to make an impression into the frame, 2 mm below the center- line of the frame. (This is the location of the follower gear mounted on the rear wheel axle)

25. Building a mousetrap car – tape wood-frames together:
Tape both frame pieces together, (making sure that the tape does not cover any of the impressions marked in No. 5)
Both frames should be lined up with the markings, T - are together, B - are together, I - are inside, and O - are outside.

26. Building a mousetrap car – Putting the pieces together:
Drill holes at centers of the three impressions (front wheel axle, driver gear axle and follower gear drive wheel axle), marked in No 5. Before removing tape, examine to make sure that holes are properly aligned
Glue inside of first frame (glue on inside) to side of mousetrap
Install gears, axles and second frame (hand-held in place) to verify proper alignment. (Note that axles should be at right angles to frames)
Glue inside of second frame (glue on inside) to other side of mousetrap

27. Building a mousetrap car – Putting the pieces together:
Align gears, test gear rotation and glue center of gear to axle. (Carefully apply 1 drop of glue only)
Complete installation of wheels, washers and tubing ends. Test wheel rotation.
Attach bail-string to bail and bail-string attachment to the driver axle First, attach bail-string to closed loop at end of bail and cut bail-string to proper length, depending on the option selected for bail-string attachment to the driver axle Option 1 – “String over-lapping rap method”. Holding end of string, wrap string around the driver axle,(by rotating the driver axle by hand), making sure that the succeeding wraps overlap the previous ones Option 2 - “Loop and fixed attachment method”. Form loop at end of string. Glue ¼-inch long dowel attachment to driver gear axle. Place string-loop over fixed dowel attachment and wrap string around axle,(by rotating the driver axle by hand)

28. Building a mousetrap car – Putting the pieces together:
Check and verify proper alignment of components
Test mousetrap car and make adjustments as necessary
Great job and see you at the competition!!!

29. The finished product:

30. Store materials and tools in a safe area upon completion

31. You are absolutely the very best.
The South Florida Industry Partners Education Mousetrap Car Design Seminar
CONGRATULATIONS and THANK YOU.
You are absolutely the very best.

32. Let’s make it happen – We support S.E.C.M.E.