Mousetrap Car Research Paper

939 Words4 Pages
SNAP! VROOM! Mousetrap cars are used in science classrooms around the globe. Mousetrap cars are solely powered on the force from a single mousetrap. People use all kinds of junk to whip up mousetrap cars from old scraps of wood to cd’s and rulers. The goal of a mousetrap car is to go the fastest the farthest.The car that went the farthest in my cores went 29.5 meters! Science, more specifically physics plays a very important role in the mousetrap car’s performance. It plays a more important role than one might think. Newton’s First, Second, and Third Laws of Motion all play a key role in making mousetraps perform their best. First of all, Newton’s First Law applies to mousetrap cars because it states that in object in motion will stay in motion, and an object at rest will stay at rest unless acted by an unbalanced force. This applies to mousetrap cars because when a car…show more content…
This has to do with mousetrap cars because when the car was on the ground it had an action force because it was pushing against the floor, the floor had a reaction force because it was pushing back against the car. Also, when your hand was pushing against the trap, the trap was pushing back against your hand. Furthermore, when the car was moving, it was pushing through the air in an action force, the air was pushing back against the car in a reaction force.Another way that the Third law relates to mousetrap cars is that some cars veered off of the track and crashed into the wall. Before the cars crashed, they were gaining momentum. The equation for momentum is p=mv or property equals mass times velocity. When they crashed their momentum was transferred leaving them from little to no momentum. The Law of Conservation of Momentum comes in because the momentum the car had was not destroyed, it was transferred into the wall where it was
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