Mouse Trap Car

This will show the energy transfer in a Mouse trap car

Jack Miller

The Mouse Trap

Before it is loaded, the mouse trap will look like this, it does not have any energy stored yet and therefore has no way of giving energy to the wheels.

Loading the mouse trap

When You Load the mouse trap, it will store energy, this energy is called potential energy because it can potentially become another type of energy.

Once loaded, the mouse trap will look like this.

The first energy transfer

Once the mouse trap is triggered, it causes the bar to fly back, in this case the mouse trap is connected to the wheels, so the potential energy stored in the mouse trap becomes kinetic energy to power the wheels. Thus causing the wheels to spin.

The Second energy transfer

As the wheels spin, you may notice that they slow down, this is because the kinetic energy given to them from the mouse trap is turning into thermal energy, or heat. As the wheels spin, they create heat due to the friction between them and the surface they are spinning on, they will slow down because the kinetic energy is changed into potential energy, and once all the energy in the wheels has been converted the car will stop.

Transfer diagram

Say the blue is potential the red is kinetic and the orange is thermal, here is an example of how the energy transfer takes place.