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| Our Roller Coaster |
Summary
For this project, we were given the task to create a roller coaster that exemplifies all of Newton's Laws, as well as several elements of physics that we have been studying. We were able to do this using insulation tubes, dowels, and a marble as our cart. In order to do this, we had to learn key concepts including kinetic energy, potential energy, speed, acceleration, velocity, and force. How our roller coaster shows these elements is quite simple. When at the beginning of the first hill in the track, it has a great amount of potential energy. This is actually where the potential energy is the highest. When the marble has just finished a hill, the kinetic energy is the highest. Obviously, speed and acceleration are prevalent all throughout the course because that what keeps the marble going.
Backward Looking: What process did you go through to produce this piece?
In order to make this project happen, we had to go through a series steps that would eventually lead to our final product. This includes the making the initial design, experimenting with what worked, and what didn't, testing different designs. After we were done with this phase, we went onto recording different runs, calculating different elements and putting it all onto the design brief. Once all of this was done, all we had left to do was finally decorate and perfect the track. After we were done with all these steps, we had to reflect upon our work on this reflection.
Inward Looking: What did/do you find frustrating about it?
What we found very difficult to get right was trying to get the marble to come to a complete stop. We tried so many different methods in trying to make it stop. The first method we used was trying to get tape to increase friction while on the track. With increased friction of the tape, we were then able to make it come to a more gradual stop. After a while, we realized that it actually wasn't helping much at all. So, what we the decided to do was add a little bump of tape and elevate it at the end. With using this method, we were able to make the marble go over the bump and in turn slow it down, and then it would go over the hill, causing it to have much less speed, and come back to the bump and stop.
Outward Looking: Did you do your work the way other people did theirs? In what ways did you do it differently? In what ways was your work or process similar?
In a sense, I believe that everyone did similar work. Everybody had the same materials to work with, it just mainly had to do with whatever creative spin you can put onto it. For us, we decided to used a tri-fold piece of cardboard to help support the hill in the beginning. We saw that a lot people were doing this because it helped reduce the cost of their materials, and also gave a sturdier surface that it can go off of. We saw that a lot of people made their tracks focused on how long they could make it, and have a lot more twists and hills. For ours, we decided to mainly focus on functionality instead. We decided to have more elements that could support the weight of all the parts in the track, as well as make it have all the necessary elements, creative ideas, and a speedy "cool" looking track.
Forward Looking: One thing I would like to improve upon is
I guess if I were to improve something about the roller coaster, I would most probably add more decorations, and overall make it look more sophisticated. If we didn't have as much random tape everywhere, and overall make it look a lot more clean and neat, it would have been a much better looking project. Another thing that I would most like improve on is making the dowels more in place and secure on the track. By doing this, we could have avoided a lot of the errors and problems that we started running into along the way.
In order to make this project happen, we had to go through a series steps that would eventually lead to our final product. This includes the making the initial design, experimenting with what worked, and what didn't, testing different designs. After we were done with this phase, we went onto recording different runs, calculating different elements and putting it all onto the design brief. Once all of this was done, all we had left to do was finally decorate and perfect the track. After we were done with all these steps, we had to reflect upon our work on this reflection.
Inward Looking: What did/do you find frustrating about it?
What we found very difficult to get right was trying to get the marble to come to a complete stop. We tried so many different methods in trying to make it stop. The first method we used was trying to get tape to increase friction while on the track. With increased friction of the tape, we were then able to make it come to a more gradual stop. After a while, we realized that it actually wasn't helping much at all. So, what we the decided to do was add a little bump of tape and elevate it at the end. With using this method, we were able to make the marble go over the bump and in turn slow it down, and then it would go over the hill, causing it to have much less speed, and come back to the bump and stop.
Outward Looking: Did you do your work the way other people did theirs? In what ways did you do it differently? In what ways was your work or process similar?
In a sense, I believe that everyone did similar work. Everybody had the same materials to work with, it just mainly had to do with whatever creative spin you can put onto it. For us, we decided to used a tri-fold piece of cardboard to help support the hill in the beginning. We saw that a lot people were doing this because it helped reduce the cost of their materials, and also gave a sturdier surface that it can go off of. We saw that a lot of people made their tracks focused on how long they could make it, and have a lot more twists and hills. For ours, we decided to mainly focus on functionality instead. We decided to have more elements that could support the weight of all the parts in the track, as well as make it have all the necessary elements, creative ideas, and a speedy "cool" looking track.
Forward Looking: One thing I would like to improve upon is
I guess if I were to improve something about the roller coaster, I would most probably add more decorations, and overall make it look more sophisticated. If we didn't have as much random tape everywhere, and overall make it look a lot more clean and neat, it would have been a much better looking project. Another thing that I would most like improve on is making the dowels more in place and secure on the track. By doing this, we could have avoided a lot of the errors and problems that we started running into along the way.
