Roller Coaster Project Blog

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.

Making My Own Rolar Coaster! : Weekly Blog #16

www.worldsciencefestival.com

Summary  - 

This week in science, 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. This includes concepts such as 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.

S&EP - Conducting Investigations

Through this roller coaster, our team decided to collect the different data point in which important events in our roller coaster occured. Some examples of this could be when the acceleration was the highest, which locations had the most potential energy, and which had the most kinetic energy. When trying to figure out what types of loops and hills worked with our track, we also chose to control the height and length of the loops and hills. We had to do this so we would know how the different elements in our track could work.

XCC - Cause and Effect

One great example of cause and effect in the roller coaster can be seen with the us deciding to put tape on the track. The cause of this was because the main problem we ran into was trying to make our marble come to a complete stop. We then decided to change the amount of tape we put in seperate parts of track. When putting down tape we saw that it had an effect of the amount of friction that the marble experienced, causing it to slow down. This shows cause and effect by having the tape exemplify an alternate way of making the marble come to a complete stop, and introducing a different twist on the friction present throughout the rest of the track. The cause of us doing it being because we couldn't get it to stop, and the effect being us putting on tape because it increased friction.

Studying Kinetic Energy and Potential Energy: Weekly Blog #15

www.differencebtw.com

Summary

Kinetic and potential energy are two very different types of energy. When something has kinetic energy, that means that it is energy in motion. This is quite a bit different from when something has potential energy. Potential energy is when an object has a lot of energy inside of it, and if force were to be applied, it would release that energy. This can be seen in Newton's third law, with every action comes an identical and opposite reaction. Potential energy has to have enough work put into it in order to have a reaction of work.

S&EP - Analyzing Data

This week we had to analyze the changes in data between differently placed items that were put on a variety of shelves. This was done by using a gizmo simulation.
XCC - Stablitity and Change

Regrade for Speed Mastery Quest

Summary: These are the questions on last weeks mastery quest on speed that I got wrong and these are my correction

Question: 7

Answer Before -  5 X

Correct Answer - 500 ✓


Why did I get this question wrong? I didn't think the logic of my multiplication all the way through and just assumed it was 5 instead of actually calculating it

Question: 10

Answer Before 2m/s X
Correct Answer - 0.5m/s✓

Why did I get this question wrong? When calculating speed i put time/distance not distance/time.

Question: 12

Answer Before - When distance = 90 and speed =185. X

Correct Answer - When distance = 15 and speed = 20 ✓

Why did I get this question wrong? When calculating speed i put time/distance not distance/time.

Examining Changes in Acceleration - Weekly Blog #14

https://www.khanacademy.org

Summary

Acceleration is the measure of changes in velocity over time. Any object that is experiencing change in speed and direction is considered to be accelerating. Because of this,acceleration is measured as a vector quantity. This means that it measures both the magnitude and direction of an object. You could also model acceleration by using a graph. in order to graph acceleration, it has to be a velocity vs. time graph. When an object has negative acceleration, it is known as deceleration. When I was able to apply the knowledge of acceleration all throughout the week. This was most notable in this weeks lab.

S&EP - Analyzing Data

This week in science, we did a lab using Hotwheels race cars to examine changes in acceleration. Through this experiment, we were able to collect data while running different tests on the cars, closely examining their speeds at different times. We varied the slopes of the ramps, as well as how long the track was both times. We then had to record all of this data we collected from the different experiments onto our papers. From there, we were able to convert all the information into a few different types of graphs, and we looked to see the similarities between them.

XCC - Stablitity and Change

There is a great example of stability and change that can be seen in acceleration. The change is provided by the different types of data we were able to collect when varying the slopes of the ramps, as well as the length of the track. Stability in this experiment came from us trying to get an average speed that the car went at. If it were to be released from the same exact place, with the exact same amount of force every time, it would produce a constant speed. This can be shown as a s sense of stability because having a constant speed gives a stable variable that can serve to be true in several situations.

Studying Changes in Speed and Velocity Through Graphs: Weekly Blog #13

Image:

The matching I did with my group

Summary:

This week in science, I learned a lot about how graphs can represent data and replicating a certain situation. This, of course, is directly correlated to the distance that an object takes in a certain amount of time. Speed is a scalar quantity that represents how fast an object is moving. Velocity is a vector quantity that measure how fast an object is moving, and the direction its moving in. There are several different scenarios that we looked through as a group, and we had to figure out which scenario corresponded best with the graph. Through this, I was able to learn what it means  to speed up, or slow down  by looking at the data, and then being able to understand what that would visually look like on a graph. In order to figure out how fast an object is moving, you have to calculate how the object has changed in response to how much distance(rise) an object has take over the time(run).

S&EP - Analyzing Data

I had to analyze the data given to us in the different scenarios that were corresponding with the speeds that Joe was going at. Through all these different situations, we had to dissect all of elements that went into each story, and attempt to most closely relate it to one of the given graphs. Later on, we also had to see how the graphs numbers changed in relation to his time and distance by plotting down his distance at certain times. This proves that this week, I went through a deep analysis of data in order to relate all the information. 

XCC - Patterns

I started to notice patterns that would occur when Joe went through different situations that were somewhat similar to each other. This could be seen when Joe experience a situation where he went faster, I noticed that the start and end of the line was tighter. This could also be seen when he went slower, the lines were more extended. Some other patterns i noticed were every time he didst move, the line was strait, but didn't change in distance, just increasing in time. Also, when it said that Joe was coming back to his origin, you always see that the line comes back to the bottom of the graph or at 0 distance.

This Year's Charity Fair: Project Blog

Tri-fold of our project

Summary

During this project, I learned a lot. One thing that definitely stuck out to me in this project is learning how to use laminate on boards and cards. I needed to learn how to use this because without knowing how to we wouldn't be able to make our product look as professional. I also learned how to make a background that players can follow in order to make our board game functional. It taught me alot about graphic design and how the brain processes patterns and paths according to color coordination. This is what I learned over the course of this project

Backwards Looking - What process did you go through to produce this piece?

To create our board game, we went through a relatively simple process. To create all the different parts of the project is another story, so i'm just going to say how we made the game. First, we had to do all of the printing for the boards and cards. Next, we had to cut all the cards to size and laminate them. For the board, we had to cut all the boards to size and cut cardboard to match the background. We then glued the background to the cardboard and laminated it. Then, we laminated all the logos to the back of the text side of the cards. After all that, we put the cards, boards, marbles, rules, and dice into a box. After this we were done creating our product. 

Inwards Looking - How do you feel about this piece of work? What parts of it do you particularly like? Dislike? Why? What did/do you enjoy about this piece or work?

I feel as if our group did pretty well on this project. We produced a well done ignite presentation, as well as we were able to maintain clear ideas throughout the whole presentation. We also did pretty well on our products. However, some things that I thought we did OK on (not very good, or bad) is probably our tri-fold. Our tri-fold looked overall a bit sloppy, and kind or messy in my opinion, but it wasn't overwhelmingly terrible. This what I enjoyed, and didn't enjoy about our project

Outward Looking - What grade would you give it? Why?

I would probably give this project an A-. I would say this because, for the most part, we did everything relatively well. Our presentation was pretty good. Our product was very nice looking and presentable as a legitimate board game. Last but not least, our instructable was pretty good too. The only reason why I wouldn't give us an A is because, like I said before, our poster board had some faults. But they weren't overwhelming, as in they didn't distract you from the ideas our poster was conveying. This is the grade I would giver our project.

Forward Looking - As you look at this piece, what's one thing that you would like to try to improve upon?

I think that I could probably improve upon the tri-fold. As I mentioned before, the tri-fold was a bit sloppy, and overall could have probably improved. So next time I will know what I did wrong before, which was deciding to put the entire covering of paper at once, which can induce tears due to stretching. I think that we also could have made the rules a bit more specific, and potentially made our product look a bit nicer and more profesional. These are the things I will improve upon for my next project.