Reflection

After performing the tests in school, I would say that the mousetrap car was quite successful. It traveled 29 tiles, which compared to some other groups was exceptional. What made the car work, was the force being used. The mousetrap held a lot of potential energy, specially in the spring part. It was also well put together. The CD's were glued into place and helped the car stay on a straight path. This project was overall a great way to show Newton's three laws. If I were to do this project again, there a few things I would have done differently. One, is not wait till the last minute. Although, this didn't negatively affect our project, it did rush us through the process. Another thing I would have done differently is glue down the axle holders (pen ink backs) properly. Even though it didn't affect the car's performance, the axle holders got loose during the testing. The reasons for this error was not applying enough glue on the car. Some further investigation I would do is research more on the balloon car and rubber band car. I could also test them by created a small model. I would also go through the mousetrap car's design until it was perfected.