Mousetrap Vehicle C

hlall
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Re: Mousetrap Vehicle C

Post by hlall »

We had a sub 10s vehicle but something broke in transit and killed our accuracy leaving us at 5th. (Adjusted but the issue was inconsistent the second time around).
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Re: Mousetrap Vehicle C

Post by masterhat »

Our car was doing awesome before nats. We had 9-11 sec runs with less than 20cm error (because of sliding) but when we got there the car was bad for some reason. On the way back it turned for some reason so we added extra mass which made more traction for the drive wheel. This slowed the car down (even though the troy coach thought that it was really fast) and it was still about as accurate as before we had left. I believe that the scores were really close because we got 14th and our run was faster than troy's and about as accurate (and they got 8th).
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Re: Mousetrap Vehicle C

Post by packer-backer91 »

Has anyone looked at the first place vehicle that won the event on from "The Best 2010," I looked at that thing for a minute and thought that winning one was a big complicated mess!!!! Was anyone there to watch it? To me it looks like it uses a compound lever system, that’s the only thing that I could guess how that works. Anyone know how it operated? That vehicle had to be extremely light too, that it appears to be all carbon fiber.

How fast was this vehicle [my guess ~8 or 9 seconds]
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Re: Mousetrap Vehicle C

Post by penclspinner »

packer-backer91 wrote:Has anyone looked at the first place vehicle that won the event on from "The Best 2010," I looked at that thing for a minute and thought that winning one was a big complicated mess!!!! Was anyone there to watch it? To me it looks like it uses a compound lever system, that’s the only thing that I could guess how that works. Anyone know how it operated? That vehicle had to be extremely light too, that it appears to be all carbon fiber.

How fast was this vehicle [my guess ~8 or 9 seconds]
Yeah I think that Solon's vehicle was around that time. It was very very fast.

Sorry I couldn't tell you how it worked though it sounds like you sort of have it figured out.
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Re: Mousetrap Vehicle C

Post by yogi94 »

I was just wondering, is using magnets allowed on the vehicle? The rules say that the energy source must be at its lowest energy state, but this is a little vague regarding magnets...
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Re: Mousetrap Vehicle C

Post by fleet130 »

"Using Magnets" is a little vague! What will they be used for? If it's to provide energy to propel the vehicle somehow, the answer is no. There may be many allowable usea, if we knew what the rules are.

The general idea is that all energy to propel the vehicle must be stored in the mousetrap. Once the mousetrap has been released to start a run, energy may be transferred from the mousetrap to other storage devices. Those other devices must have no usable energy (to propel the vehicle) except that which is transferred from the mousetrap.

Energy transfers are seldom used because they are never 100% efficient. Energy is lost with each transfer, leaving less available to propel the vehicle.
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Re: Mousetrap Vehicle C

Post by Paradox21 »

Under the old rules, I think you could have used a magnet as part of a triggering mechanism for the 2nd mousetrap. You could even use a battery powered device (perhaps an electromagnet) but this additional energy could not be used to help propel the vehicle in any way.
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Re: Mousetrap Vehicle C

Post by yogi94 »

I'm sorry, I should have been more specific. Magnets as a braking system? I'm guessing I can from the two replies.. Thanks :D
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