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Re: Mousetrap Vehicle C
Posted: October 28th, 2018, 5:16 pm
by cheese
sciencecat42 wrote:
Also, our car doesn't go far enough. Are 2-3/8" wheels large enough? Since I don't want to drop $25 on the banebot wheels/hubs and I don't have a lathe.
The distance your car travels isn't merely dependent on the size of your wheels. Try extending your drive arm and see if that makes a difference.
Re: Mousetrap Vehicle C
Posted: October 28th, 2018, 8:28 pm
by Things2do
cheese wrote:sciencecat42 wrote:
Also, our car doesn't go far enough. Are 2-3/8" wheels large enough? Since I don't want to drop $25 on the banebot wheels/hubs and I don't have a lathe.
The distance your car travels isn't merely dependent on the size of your wheels. Try extending your drive arm and see if that makes a difference.
To go off of that, you also need to remember that the end of your lever arm should reach as far back as the location of the drive axel to get the most benefit from the longer arm.
Re: Mousetrap Vehicle C
Posted: October 31st, 2018, 5:59 am
by MangoTTT
Does anyone know how to make a compound lever? I know how it works and all, but I don't know what equipments I need to make it
Re: Mousetrap Vehicle C
Posted: October 31st, 2018, 3:10 pm
by Things2do
For general information, the 3oz cup is volume, not weight. Just in case a ES has a 85 gram cup...
https://www.soinc.org/does-3-oz-refer-v ... r-mass-cup
Re: Mousetrap Vehicle C
Posted: November 3rd, 2018, 5:17 pm
by sciencecat42
So is it best to make the car as long as possible for the longest drive arm?
Re: Mousetrap Vehicle C
Posted: November 3rd, 2018, 8:09 pm
by Fridaychimp
sciencecat42 wrote:So is it best to make the car as long as possible for the longest drive arm?
A longer vehicle is a heavier vehicle. However, the added distance from drive arm length offsets that small weight difference, so in general, longer cars are better.
Re: Mousetrap Vehicle C
Posted: November 3rd, 2018, 8:45 pm
by Things2do
Fridaychimp wrote:sciencecat42 wrote:So is it best to make the car as long as possible for the longest drive arm?
A longer vehicle is a heavier vehicle. However, the added distance from drive arm length offsets that small weight difference, so in general, longer cars are better.
As long as your wheel distances are within compliance.
Also, does anybody have any ideas on how to keep my arm from bending so much? It's a small diameter brass rod about a foot long.
Re: Mousetrap Vehicle C
Posted: November 4th, 2018, 7:56 am
by windu34
Things2do wrote:Fridaychimp wrote:sciencecat42 wrote:So is it best to make the car as long as possible for the longest drive arm?
A longer vehicle is a heavier vehicle. However, the added distance from drive arm length offsets that small weight difference, so in general, longer cars are better.
As long as your wheel distances are within compliance.
Also, does anybody have any ideas on how to keep my arm from bending so much? It's a small diameter brass rod about a foot long.
Well first off, brass is pretty malleable. You might want to try a different material, like carbon fiber
Re: Mousetrap Vehicle C
Posted: November 4th, 2018, 10:30 am
by sciencecat42
Is a 2.375" wheel big enough? We can only get about 25 spins on our axle right now. I did the math and that means the car can only go like 187" (circumference * rotations) when it needs to go 8m. In practice, our car actually goes about 7m, but I think this is from gliding. Isn't it best to have the car be able to go about 15m so that it can go forward and back the required distances without gliding?
Re: Mousetrap Vehicle C
Posted: November 4th, 2018, 11:23 am
by sciencecat42
For those building their car out of aluminum, where do you start/what do you need to buy? Currently using balsa/bass sheets but I'm switching over to sticks since the flexing of the sheets made it so that one of my wheels didn't touch the ground.