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bearasauras wrote:Friction. But seriously I think it's possible. I saw a 2 wheel device yesterday for mousetrap vehicle and they were able to brake with wing nuts.

2 wheel as in bicycle type configuration (front to back) or as in segway type configuration (left to right)? If a bicycle type configuration, there are 2 axles... the centers of rotation of each wheel. I can't imagine how a segway type system could possibly work in this event, so that shouldn't be an issue.

curly657 wrote:If our car doesn't have front axles, where should we place the bent paperclip?

Thanks

Do you have wheels in the front? If so, you have axles of some sort (they just aren't necessarily 1 single axle all the way across the vehicle, rather whatever the centers of rotation of the front wheels are).

chalker wrote:

bearasauras wrote:Friction. But seriously I think it's possible. I saw a 2 wheel device yesterday for mousetrap vehicle and they were able to brake with wing nuts.

2 wheel as in bicycle type configuration (front to back) or as in segway type configuration (left to right)? If a bicycle type configuration, there are 2 axles... the centers of rotation of each wheel. I can't imagine how a segway type system could possibly work in this event, so that shouldn't be an issue.

Segway, they have a hanging mass from the 1 axel and from that they can make a breaking system with a wing nut if they wanna. It won't be as good as with 2 axles, but it'll do.

bearasauras wrote:It won't be as good as with 2 axles, but it'll do.

Then why make it difficult on yourself for something that won't work as well?

I guess it's part of the learning experience.

curly657 wrote:If our car doesn't have front axles, where should we place the bent paperclip?

Thanks

The rules say: "The vehicle must have the point of a bent paper clip which serves as a Measurement Point on either side of the vehicle between the front and rear axles of the vehicle"... That means it is on the side of the vehicle right? In the middle, length wise.

How much are you're guys vehicles weighing????


I think we should name them too, mine is named Carlisle... lol

2.49 kg. The vehicle is right at 500 gr; the rest is a chunk of lead.

No name yet.

Half-Blood-Princess wrote:How much are you're guys vehicles weighing????


I think we should name them too, mine is named Carlisle... lol

The vehicle itself weighs ~200 grams, and the total weight is around 2.1 kg. I haven't tested without the weight yet.

As for the name...I named my car Shrimp Jambalaya, since that's what we named our bottle rockets last year.

Our (unnamed) vehicle weighed in at just under 2 kg for regionals. We're just starting modifications for states and we plan on using an adjustable weight with more weight for longer distance. We found that this works well because the car will lose less speed at longer distances due to conservation of momentum.

On another note, we calibrated our car on a flat school hallway. The flooring at regionals was unfortunately covered in dust and caused our vehicle to skid for 25 cm more than it was during testing. Is anyone else having this problem? And if not, what wheels are you using to avoid this? We were using CD's coated in electrical tape for traction.