Revisiting the Mousetraps Experiment: Not Just about Nuclear Chain Reactions

We present here the first quantitative measurements of a classic experiment, that “mousetrap chain reaction”. It was proposed for time in 1947 to illustrate reaction occurring nuclear fission. involves several spring-loaded mousetraps loaded with solid balls. Once one trap is made snap, it releases two balls may trigger other traps. The result rapidly flares and then subsides as most traps have been triggered. experiment has popular scientific demonstration, but does not seem data were ever reported about it, nor described using model. set out do exactly that, we can report mousetrap be fitted by simple dynamic model derived from well-known Lotka-Volterra one. also discuss significance this beyond reactions, providing insight into variety fields (chemistry, biology, memetic, natural resources exploitation) involving complex adaptive systems.