Designing a Mousetrap Car for Optimal Distance: A Physics Project

[Garabaldi]

Hello and sorry about deviating from the provided format,

I need to construct a mousetrap car for Physics class; it must transport a soda can an exact distance from the starting point. There may be no additional sources of energy other than the mousetrap and no kit cars may be used.

Unfortunately, the teacher distributed this project without any instruction about what materials should be used or how to make a car. Now I'm lost...I've read several internet resources regarding this topic but still am not clear as to what materials to buy/how to construct a car that can best complete this task.

I'd really appreciate it if you guys could help me out - thanks in advance.

 

[Liquidxlax]

first thing that came to my mind. and now i want to build one.

There are many different ways to build them. I instantly thought of this. The mousetrap would be tied to a string which is wrapped around a spool which has some teeth that touche another spool with teeth which would drive the wheels. Of course the string cannot be tied to the spool, just the mousetrap. As for the can, I'm sure it would be no problem to integrate that.

forgot an arrow, where the mousetrap swings right --->

 

[Great-dane]