Mousetrap Powered Cars

Posted Date: 03/02/2021

LHS students in Mr. Bucky Demel's Physics class were given the challenge of making a small car powered solely by a standard mousetrap. The goal of this project was to illustrate the transfer of stored potential energy being transformed into kinetic energy and how useful energy can be "lost" to friction and heat. Students were allowed to use any materials that they could find but, the maximum amount of money they could spend on materials was limited to one dollar. They were tasked to get their car to travel at least 10 meters (about 33 feet). All groups in the class were successful with a maximum distance of 15.1 meters (50 feet)! Thank you, Mr. Demel, for having your students discover learning!