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Have you guys been using mousetraps of the maximum size they allow you? Because I've found that the slightly smaller ones are a little more reliable than the larger ones.

ophiophagus wrote:Have you guys been using mousetraps of the maximum size they allow you? Because I've found that the slightly smaller ones are a little more reliable than the larger ones.

Are you using Victor? I've found they're better than Tomcat. But more to the point, I've never seen mousetraps the exact size they allow us. The mousetraps I've seen are always a little smaller than the 6x10 cm allowed, like 5x9

Times this year should be much quicker than last year so the extra length of the pointer is kind of a big thing if like winneratlife guesstimated that it could be a second of time loss by using the full 1m box. My vehicle was not the fastest by any means [15ish seconds was the fastest] so by that traveled ~1.07 seconds per meter so around 10.7sec for this year but in reality would be slightly under that [my guess could be 9 seconds] because I had some untraveled distance too. To be able take off an extra 10% of time of a vehicle would be very beneficial, especially if my guess ~9 seconds being very reasonable to see.

so im assuming that the lightest car would be the best one possible, right? (but does that mean the smallest one is the best?)

bwy wrote: I'm also wondering about 5a. because I haven't found anything that clarifies this: does the whole cup have to cross the line, or only the rim of the cup closest to the tape?

Read 6 b. i. 1. It doesn't matter whether the cup crosses or not, just the distance from closest rim to line. If any part of the rim is touching the line, the score is 0.

ChrisYim wrote:so im assuming that the lightest car would be the best one possible, right? (but does that mean the smallest one is the best?)

Not necessarily. A light car might not have enough traction and could skid.

masterhat wrote:Not necessarily. A light car might not have enough traction and could skid.

I had that problem last year, I ended up adding some 25g weights over each wheel to aid in braking & traction.

Woohoo! I've built my first vehicle for this year. But I can already tell that it is far too light to get any traction or for the braking system to work properly. Any ideas on how to add weight? Are there any common household objects I can use?

illusionist wrote:Woohoo! I've built my first vehicle for this year. But I can already tell that it is far too light to get any traction or for the braking system to work properly. Any ideas on how to add weight? Are there any common household objects I can use?

How about sand?

illusionist wrote:Woohoo! I've built my first vehicle for this year. But I can already tell that it is far too light to get any traction or for the braking system to work properly. Any ideas on how to add weight? Are there any common household objects I can use?

remember not to add too much, sand can be messy to attach in such small amounts as needed. I think using some coins will work easy and is easy to keep reasonably constant [ie every dime should have same mass] sand can be messy because of the many individual grains.