Distance MouseTrap Cars

One of the most popular projects assigned is to build a MouseTrap car for distance. With this project, there is a friendly (or not so friendly at some university campuses) competition where the students compete to see which mousetrap car goes the farthest distance.

I don't know if their is an official Guinness World Record for mousetrap car distance, but there are all sorts of claims around the Internet of student-built mousetrap cars traveling as far as 100 meters or more! That's pretty darn far for a one mouse-power engine.

When it comes down to building your mousetrap car for distance, it's all a matter of science. If you remember some of your physics theories, you will have stored energy in the form of the wound up mousetrap spring. The key to making your mousetrap car go the farthest is to keep tweaking your design so that it travels at the lowest possible speed. Yes, that's right I said the slower the better. It's better to have that puppy crawl 100 meters than to spin out less than 20 meters or so.

Of course the other principles apply as well, such as keeping the weight down and reducing friction. However, slowing the speed down is the critical tip to build a winning mousetrap distance car.

To find out more tips or to learn exactly how to slow your mousetrap car down for maximum distance, please see our family's new release on How To Build A Mouse Trap Car. My sons and I have several years and at least a score's worth of mousetrap car's experience in this helpful, step-by-step guide.

Newly added in June 2009, click here for Mouse Trap Car Videos

Mouse Trap Car | Mouse Trap Cars | Mousetrap Car | Mousetrap Cars