Mousetrap car material suggestions

AI Thread Summary
The discussion focuses on a physics assessment requiring the design of a mousetrap car to lift a 10g weight one meter as slowly as possible. The user is seeking ways to slow down the motion of the mousetrap, considering the malleability of bamboo and the potential use of cardboard springs, but finds these methods ineffective. Suggestions include using bamboo to extend the mousetrap's swing and leveraging the differing sizes of the PET bottle to create a gearing effect to reduce speed. The user is open to additional ideas to improve their design. Effective solutions are crucial for achieving the assessment's goal.
Hyperreality
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I am currently doing a physics assessment. The aim of the assessment is to lift a 10g film barrister one meter high as slow as possible. The equipments provided are:

2m of string
A standard mousetrap
1.5L PET Bottle + Lids
Up to 3m of Bamboos
Paper Clips (Use for adhesive, not for construction)
Any types of glues.(Used for adhesive, not for construction)
A cardboard.

So far I got everything figured out and ready to go, but I cannot find any ways to slow down the motion of the mousetrap. I was thinking of using the maleiability of the bamboos to slow down the motion of the mousetrap, but I doubt that would work. I also thought of making a spring by using the cardboard to counter the spring force of the mousetrap, but that didn't have much effect.

Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated

The mousetrap I'm using is the 13th image on this website:

http://ww.udel.edu/~mcdonald/mousetrap.html
 
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Hi Hyperreality,
can you make the bamboo grow?
 
Unfortunately no, the 3m bamboos are provided by my teacher.
 
Could you use one of the bamboos to extend the mousetraps swing, then the differentiated sizing of the 1.5 L bottles neck, and body, to effectively "Gear" the speed, and thereby decerease its overall speed??
 
Kindly see the attached pdf. My attempt to solve it, is in it. I'm wondering if my solution is right. My idea is this: At any point of time, the ball may be assumed to be at an incline which is at an angle of θ(kindly see both the pics in the pdf file). The value of θ will continuously change and so will the value of friction. I'm not able to figure out, why my solution is wrong, if it is wrong .
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