How to Make a Mousetrap Car, Step-by-Step

Mousetraps can store torque, which allows mousetrap cars to move.

Middle school teachers often make their students construct a mousetrap car. In the lesson, students are educated about the ability to create extra torque. After a mousetrap is triggered, the spring, which stores torque, is released and the vehicle moves further. The energy comes from the rear axle, propelling the car over the surface it is moving on. The mousetrap is used as the car body, with compact discs creating the wheels, rubber bands as the tires and two ballpoint pens as the axles.

Things You'll Need

• Glue
• 2 ballpoint pens
• 1-foot length of string
• 4 eye hooks
• Mousetrap
• Pin
• Rubber bands
• 4 compact discs

Instructions

1. Screw eye hooks into the short ends of the mousetrap with your fingers. Rotate so the curved part of the hook is facing the ground. Put each about 1 cm from the edges.

2. Disassemble the ballpoint pens. Poke a small hole with a pin into the middle of each of the pen tubes. Poke it all the way through to the other side. Grind back and forth with the pin until you make the hole. Slide a pen tube through the back-eye hooks. The back is at the opposite side from where you would put the mouse bait. Slide the other pen through the front hooks.

3. Thread the string through the pen hole. Tie a knot so that you can`t pull the string back through. Tie the other end of the string to the center of the trap bar. Glue it down to the base of the mousetrap with a dab.

4. Wind rubber bands around both ends of each pen. Slide the discs over the bands. Make sure they are perpendicular with the floor. The discs are your wheels.

5. Stretch a rubber band over the wheel edge for your tires.

6. Pull the mouse trap bar back. Set it in place to ensure it doesn`t snap back.

References

• Mouse Trap Car: Mouse Trap Car
• Mousetrap Cars: Mousetrap Car and Vehicle Propulsion Theory