Mousetrap (weapon) Puns

For me, Mousetrap was a very interesting robot. It had pretty bad armour, which was easily ripped off by S3, but it was a surprisingly good machine in some situations and performed quite well in its fights. The guillotine blade may not have been great for dealing damage to other robots, but it acted well as a... well, trap to hold the opposition down. This allowed it to bulldoze the opponent into the side walls or the CPZs, without the opponent being able to put up too much resistance.

Mousetrap's weapon didn't work properly all the time, so it struggled to self right (if I recall correctly, it never did successfully do so), but if pulled off correctly, the trap weapon seems like it would be a fairly efficient self-righter.

With tougher armour, and a consistently reliable 'trap' weapon, could a modern 'Mousetrap-esque' robot do well nowadays? This is coming from someone with zero experience, so feel free to leave your opinion down below. :)

if you're unfamiliar with the mousetrap car, it is simply a vehicle that uses stored potential energy in a mousetrap spring to move. That potential energy is converted into kinetic energy when the arm is rotating forward. The arm pulls on the wound-up string, which turns the drive axle, This drive axle is connected to the wheels, which turn forward and therefore makes the car drive forward.

In our guide we have an expression for:

W= μ (T+F+0.5mg)^((r/R))Δx

where is T the magnitude of the tension
in the string that is pulling on the rear axle

F is the magnitude of the drive
force on the chassis by the rear axle, ultimately a portion of
the force of static friction between the rear wheel system and
the ground, which is responsible for driving the whole car
forward (including the rear wheel system).

M is the mass of the chassis, which includes all components other than the
rear wheel system, and here is taken to be equally distributed
between the front and rear wheel systems

r is the radius of axle, R is the radius of wheels

How the hell do you get that expression? why take the power r/R**?**

Alright, short story. We’ve had a mouse problem and I have several mousetraps put out. I’ve always been told that snap traps (the quintessential mousetrap that snaps a bar down on a mouse) is the most humane way to quickly dispatch a pesky mouse.

This is not true.

I was standing in the bathroom in my robe, brushing my teeth, when suddenly... SNAP!

“Got one!” My wife and I said in harmony.

I went to check on my trophy kill only to find a mouse, half alive, staring and panting at me. He looked so scared and immediately my heart sank and I wanted to cry. I immediately felt guilty and wished I could unsnap the trap.

I am a firefighter and a paramedic and have seen countless horrible things, I have caught mice in snap traps before, but seeing this poor bugger suffering made me sick.

I thought of the best way to finish the job, and first I thought about blasting it with a shotgun, but I didn’t know the best way to do that at night.

I eventually settled on beating it to death with a transfer shovel in my driveway while in my robe and underwear while apologizing profusely. Now I am sad.

Tl;dr I gave a rodent a Vikings death

Edit 1: for those concerned for my thought process, no I was not going to pop the mouse with a gun inside my house. That would be crazy. Instead I was working out a way to stuff it down the barrel partially and send it to the fucking stars outside. In hindsight, a shovel was a decent idea.

Also, thanks for the awards. They will forever be in Mr. Mouses memory.

And for anyone recommending glue traps; no.

Edit B: I typically use live traps and have moderate to decent success with them. We needed to bolster our traps because our kitchen is where they congregate and god dammit I just want to cook some eggs.

Edit III: a lot of people are recommending that I get a cat. As much as I love cats I am allergic and not about to take on a huge responsibility just to solve a mouse problem. Also, I really want to emphasize that we USE LIVE TRAPS. We had several out for roughly a week but the mice have learned how to get out. I do not like killing things but I did not want to have this poor thing suffering.

After reading a post on compassion (thanks u/astroemi) I figured that it would make sense to have some sort of stickied post or such asking newcomers who want to actually engage and stay in this sub to explain why they are here and what they are hoping to find. I know we already have the AMA but if this could be something extra helpful then I'd like to see it added.

EDIT - now gone!

I have two tickets to see the Mousetrap (St Martin’s Theatre) at 3pm today. Due to visiting older relatives for Christmas, we no longer want to take the chance, but perhaps someone can get some use out of them! They’re Upper Circle, no restricted view.

I’ve never had to deal with mice until I saw 2 that come to my backyard everyday. They eat leftover bird seeds after all the birds are gone. How can I get rid of them?