Jay Lockaby Mohammad Salehi Danny Holbert Kyle Elich Jay Lockaby Mohammad Salehi Danny Holbert Kyle Elich

Us

Introduction  The goal of our project was to make an inexpensive roller coaster out of common materials that lasts around 15 seconds.  Our project roughly cost $20. We used a variety of materials that were fairly inexpensive such as paper, wood, nails, tubing, a copper BB, and cardboard.

Overview The first step in the roller coaster is to release a BB onto the starting ramp. The starting ramp is broken up into two sections at a slight angle to one another, ending at a panel of three ramps. The panel leads into a tube which carries it through a loop to the finishing circle.

YEEHAW!

Stored Energy  BB  Gravitational Potential Energy to Kinetic Energy

Design/Construction Issues  We started out using a marble, PVC pipes, and tubing for the roller coaster, but we soon found out it was too difficult to deal with.  Using folded pieces of paper and a copper BB, we figured out that the friction between the two allowed the BB to move at a much slower pace.  Positioning the paper ramps in order for the BB to roll down correctly was difficult. Getting the BB to transition from the ramps into the tubing brought up some complications, and finding a comfortable height for the loop was hard.

Conclusion  The building of the project took 10 hours of work by all four team members, though only 1 hour was spent building the final design. Several more hours were spent on calculations and a report.  We encountered some problems including:  Tubing and PVC pipes didn’t supply enough friction  Transferring the BB from the paper ramps to the tubing