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Mouse Trap Design Report

The document is a report on the design of a mousetrap car. It explains that the car stores potential energy in its spring and converts this to rotational and translational kinetic energy when released. As the car moves, its momentum remains constant due to the law of conservation of momentum. Friction eventually stops the car's motion, converting the kinetic energy back into potential energy stored in the spring.

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Ramya Sundaram
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934 views

Mouse Trap Design Report

The document is a report on the design of a mousetrap car. It explains that the car stores potential energy in its spring and converts this to rotational and translational kinetic energy when released. As the car moves, its momentum remains constant due to the law of conservation of momentum. Friction eventually stops the car's motion, converting the kinetic energy back into potential energy stored in the spring.

Uploaded by

Ramya Sundaram
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Ramya Sundaram & Courtney Sanders 1A, 14 December 2010

Mouse Trap Car Design Report

The mousetrap car does work, which is represented by the formula

W =( Fcosθ ) d, and therefore has energy, which is the ability to do work. Throughout

the whole process energy if converted from potential energy to kinetic energy and

back to potential energy. The mousetrap car is configured so that all the elastic

potential energy is stored in the spring of the mousetrap. This is potential energy

because it is being stored and conserved with no actual movement. At this point

there is no work being done by the car, and the car has no momentum. By setting

the mousetrap, tension is created. Also torque is exerted by the spring using Hooke’s

Law, T =−k θ, where theta is the rotational angle produced by the arm of the

mousetrap and k is the spring constant.

The potential energy is converted into rotational kinetic energy when the

1 2
mousetrap car is set off. This represented by the formula, KE= ω . The car now
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has impulse and momentum. Impulse is the change in time multiplied by the force,

and momentum is the product of mass and velocity. Since the momentum is linear,

the total linear momentum remains constant through the whole process die to the

Law of the Conservation of Momentum. Also that kinetic energy is essentially

converted into translational kinetic energy since the car in theory is moving in a

straight line. Therefore, according to Law of Conservation of Energy, the total

amount of potential energy is not lost but converted in to rotational kinetic energy

and translational kinetic energy.

1
Ramya Sundaram & Courtney Sanders 1A, 14 December 2010

The car comes to a stop, and the kinetic energy is transformed back into

potential energy because the friction between the wheels and the floor caused it to

stop. The type of friction that occurs is dry friction because it is between two

surfaces in contact. It can further be subdivided into kinetic friction because the

mousetrap car is moving.

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