How can you calculate the maximum distance of a mousetrap car without knowing force or acceleration?

Answer 1

First off, A mouse trap lever only moves 180 degrees.

So you would take the length of your mouse trap pulling arm (e.g. 12''), and multiply it by two (24'')

Now you have the diameter of the circle if the mousetrap arm could spin a full 360 degrees.

So to find the circumference of that invisible circle you would multiply the diameter by pi (24'' x 3.14 = 75.36'') Now since the mouse trap arm only moves 180 degrees, you would divide your answer by 2, because 180 is half of 360.

(75.36'' divided by 2 = 37.68'')

Now that you have the distance that the arm travels you need to find the circumference of the axle your pulling wheels are on. Say that your axel has a quarter inch diameter ( .25'' ) you would do the same thing as before:

(e.g. .25'' x pi [3.14] = 0.785'')

Now you would divide the distance your lever arm moves by the circumference of your axle (e.g. 37.68'' divided by 0.785'' = 48)

this means that the string tied to the tip of the arm would wrap around the axle 48 times.

Now for the final step the circumference of the wheels, just do the same as before, diameter multiplexed by pi.

(e.g 5'' x 3.14 = 15.7'' )

Now that you know how many times the axle will rotate (48 times) and how far it travels each rotation (15.7'') all you have to do is multiply them!

e.g. (48 x 15.7 = 753.6'' )

or 20.93 yards, one fifth of a football field!

But keep in mind this is in a world with out friction.

I apologize if I was at all confusing, im not too good at teaching things, haha.

I hope I helped!