Team Project 6: Design and Build a Roller Coaster The Neon Nemesis Due: December 2, 2008 Justin Battenberg, Sara Evans, Nicholas Youst
Abstract The purpose of this project is to design and build a roller coaster that functions. The idea is to design a roller coaster using different calculations learned throughout the semester. Each team was given a forty dollar budget to spend on materials for constructing their roller coaster design. The teams were instructed to be creative in their designs and to use readily available materials. ii
1 Introduction To design the roller coaster for this project, different objectives were set in place to keep the teams on course. One objective was to be creative in designing the roller coaster. Another was to be able to fold the roller coaster into a box no bigger than a half meter cube. If the coaster was to fold then it must be able to unfold within a 30 second time limit. Each team was to use calculations and equations learned within the semester to create their roller coaster. The main objectives for the project was to have a roller coaster that worked and it had to last as close to 15 seconds as possible. Design Process Our team decided our design by a process of elimination and necessity. We had started with a few different ideas as to the direction we wanted to go for the roller coaster. Simplicity was our only criteria for designing the roller coaster. We wanted a simplistic roller coaster that would function as well as simplistic equations and calculations. Our first ideas included a simple roller coaster with a first large hill that went into a loop, rolled around a turn and went over some possible bunny hops before returning to the station. This idea was discarded due to lack of enthusiasm toward it. A second original concept was a giant spiral helix all the way down. This idea was discarded since we had originally thought the helix would be hard to calculate. The third concept we had for the roller coaster was a sort of zig-zag design that followed a path down two walls. This idea was originally discarded on the grounds that it was too simplistic. However, we settled on this concept and began construction. We would place our ball bearing car down the different sections as we put them on to make sure that our design would work. But as we constructed it we began to realize that it would not fill the time constraints that were set. Because of this we had to redesign the coaster again. Device Our design ended up consisting of the original spiral as well as the zig-zag. It has a base that supports two pegboard walls that create a corner. There is a long wooden piece that holds up the start of our coaster. The tubing wraps from the wooden support on one side of the pegboard over the top to the side of the other pegboard. From there it jumps out onto a tilted piece of pegboard which redirects the ball bearing into the next section of tubing (see figure 1 in Appendix). This second piece of tubing starts on the one side of the pegboard and slants down toward the corner. There is a hole on the bottom of the tube that lets the ball fall through into the third section. This section starts in the corner and slants down toward the edge of the other pegboard. There is a piece of paper that redirects the ball into the next section of tubing (see figure 2 in Appendix). The next two sections of tubing are the reverse of the second and third sections of tubing. This set of tubing is connected in the corner by paper as well (see figure 3 in Appendix). The last section of tubing starts at the bottom of the fifth section, where there is a hole (see figure 4 in Appendix). The ball falls through the hole into the last section of tubing where it curves down and toward the corner again. As it levels out it curves around the corner and begins to spiral into the center of the base. The spiral starts above the base and wraps around twice, as it goes around it begins to drop lower until it is on the base. It finally ends in a bottle cap.
2 The cost of most of the materials, including the tubing, cable ties, ball bearings, pegboard and MDF wood base can be viewed on figures 5 and 6 in the Appendix, the tubing cost should be doubled. The rest of the materials are as follows. The wood glue was about 3 dollars. The paint cost two dollars. The bottle cap was about five cents. The paper used was about one to five cents. The wooden dowels used were roughly two dollars are 39 cents each. The total cost of our project was $37.85 including sales tax. This brought our team under budget by two dollars and fifteen cents. The calculations we used included constant acceleration equations. These equations did not include friction. They can be seen on figure 7 in the Appendix. The ending speed of the ball in the last section according to the calculations is approximately 1.997 meters per second. By adding up the speeds and the time of the six sections of tubing the total time for the coaster should be roughly 9.69 seconds, again not including friction. Based off of our tests we were over this theoretical time. Results The results of our initial test results went very well. Our coaster experienced no problems in the run. We ended up with a time of about 13 seconds for the entire run. We tested it over and over to make sure the test was not a fluke in any way. Each test was consistently smooth throughout the entire run. Each test was also consistently around 13 seconds for the final time. Conclusions In conclusion, we were successful in executing the roller coaster. It fit into all the parameters set by the project outline and did so with style. We also ended up with a product that was very consistent. We learned a lot about teamwork and putting to use the applications of this class. There were few problems that included, kinks in the tubing and the ball getting stuck. But we pushed by them all with ease. If we could have done anything differently we probably would have tried to do a roller coaster with a little more excitement.
3 APPENDIX Figure 1: Connection Detail 1 Figure 2: Connection Detail 2 Figure 3: Connection Detail 3 Figure 4: Connection Detail 4
Figure 5: 4
Figure 6: Receipt for Ball Bearings 5
Figure 7: Summary of Calculations 6