Rollercoasters

For our isp we get the option to build a roller coaster out of common day materials. This project is due by January. It will be entered into the WonderCoaster Contest at Wonderland. Here are some previous winning roller coasters in 2009.

ANTcity
First place for Technical from A.Y. Jackson

Mario Speedway
First place for Artistic from Richview CI

Calculating Vectors

To add vectors, you start from the beginning and draw a line to the end. This will create a triangle. By using Pythagorean Theorem, the length of the line can be obtained, which will be the scalar value of the vectors. To find the direction, trigonometry is used.

To calculate the angle of the vector, it would be 90-theta. To calculate theta, tan^-1 (vertical/horizontal) is used.

Big 5 Equations

1. d=1/2(v1+v2)t
2. a=(v2-v1)/t

To derive equations 3 and 4, v needs to be substituted from one equation into the other.
a=(v2-v1)/t
v1=v2-at
Substitute v1 into equation 1
d=1/2(v2-at+v2)t
d=1/2(2v2-at)t
d=v2t-(1/2)at^2 <=== Equation 4

v2=v1+at
Substitute v2 into equation 1
d=1/2(v1+v1+at)t
d=1/2(2vt+at^2)
d=vt+(1/2)at^2 <====Equation 3

To derive equation 5, t needs to be substituted.
a=(v2-v1)/t
t=(v2-v1)/a
Substitute into equation 1
d=1/2(v1+v2)(v2-v1)a
d=1/2(v2^2-v1^2)a
2ad=v2^2-v1^1
v2^2=v1^2+2ad

Distance and Velocity

-The distance is calculated by the area of the time in seconds and the velocity in the velocity time graph

Position and Velocity Time Graphs

Graphs

Position vs Time

In this graph, the person walked stayed for 1 second

Walked away for 2.5 m in 2 seconds 

Stayed for 3 seconds

Walked 0.75 m towards in 1.5 seconds 

Stayed for 2.5 seconds

Person walked away 1 meter for 3.5 seconds

Stayed for 2.5 seconds

Walked away 1.4 m for 3.5 seconds

Walked towards 1.5 m for 3 seconds

Stayed for 1 second

Walked towards 1 m for 1 second

Stayed for 2 seconds 

Walked away 2.5 m for 3 seconds

Velocity vs. Time

Stayed for 2 seconds 

Walked towards at 0.5m/s for 3 seconds

Stayed for 2 seconds 

Walked backwards at -0.5m/s for 3 seconds

Walked faster and faster from 0 m/s to 0.5m/s for 4 seconds

Walked at 0.5m/s for 2 seconds

Walked backwards at -0.4m/s for 3 seconds

Stayed for 1 second

Walked at 0.4 m/s for 3 seconds 

Walked backwards at -0.4m/s for around 4 seconds 

Stayed for 3 seconds

This is a video of the motor Kevin S and I made

Electric Motors

Today and yesterday, our class built motors out of simple components. We were supposed to use 4 inch nails, a cork, wires, a wood board, aluminum brushes, wooden stick as an axle, small nails for commutators, and paper clips as bearings. Two nails were supposed to be spaces 3 cm from one another and 5 cm from the other two. The wooden axle penetrates the cork and placed on the paper clip bearings. The brushes were held onto the board with thumb tacks between the bearings and the nails. The brushes were supposed to touch the commutator pins. When the pins touched the brushed the current flow reversed, so the cork would keep on spinning. One side just keeps on pushing up and the other just keeps on pushing down. The south side and north side of 2 magnets are on both sides to repel the magnetic field created by the wires. Most groups' worked better the first day than on the second day.