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Sean1218
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Not using template since it doesn't really fit.
I have to build a rollercoaster for school (grade 12) and it's due at the end of the month. There's no restrictions, so you can build it using whatever materials and such that you want.
It's graded based on loops and hills. Every loop is 20%, and every hill is 10%. So, 5 loops gets you 100%, 10 hills gets you 100%, or any combination of them that you want.
I was planning on just having one fairly large starting hill and then 5 loops in fairly quick succession, and was going to build it using plastic (?) tubing (just superglue the outside parts of the tube together to make loops, plus a marble that will run all the way through the tubing). I'll do the calculations later (in addition to trial and error) to see what heights and measurements I should use.
However, my teacher seemed to imply that there was a better way to build it. I can't think of anything other than tubing + a marble, or building some extravagant project with wood etc. (which is far beyond my skills as a builder..). Does anyone know of a better way than my tubing idea? My teacher also mentioned that bending the tubing would cause 'kinks', but it'd be fine if the tubing is large enough so that the kinks won't prevent the marble from moving (and the marble of course has to be large/heavy enough so that it will carry through and won't fail due to friction).
I also just came up with another idea to use some sort of boost (in the form of magnets) throughout the ride. Is this at all plausible? I'm not sure how I'd go about ensuring that only the right side of the magnet is facing the marble so that it gets repelled further along the track. I'm also not sure what I should replace the marble with (has to be something with magnetic properties, but wouldn't it by default have both a north and south side, and therefore I wouldn't be able to control whether it approaches my 'boosts' in the right orientation. Perhaps there's a better method of incorporating boosting effects that I'm unaware of?
A little guidance would be great!
I have to build a rollercoaster for school (grade 12) and it's due at the end of the month. There's no restrictions, so you can build it using whatever materials and such that you want.
It's graded based on loops and hills. Every loop is 20%, and every hill is 10%. So, 5 loops gets you 100%, 10 hills gets you 100%, or any combination of them that you want.
I was planning on just having one fairly large starting hill and then 5 loops in fairly quick succession, and was going to build it using plastic (?) tubing (just superglue the outside parts of the tube together to make loops, plus a marble that will run all the way through the tubing). I'll do the calculations later (in addition to trial and error) to see what heights and measurements I should use.
However, my teacher seemed to imply that there was a better way to build it. I can't think of anything other than tubing + a marble, or building some extravagant project with wood etc. (which is far beyond my skills as a builder..). Does anyone know of a better way than my tubing idea? My teacher also mentioned that bending the tubing would cause 'kinks', but it'd be fine if the tubing is large enough so that the kinks won't prevent the marble from moving (and the marble of course has to be large/heavy enough so that it will carry through and won't fail due to friction).
I also just came up with another idea to use some sort of boost (in the form of magnets) throughout the ride. Is this at all plausible? I'm not sure how I'd go about ensuring that only the right side of the magnet is facing the marble so that it gets repelled further along the track. I'm also not sure what I should replace the marble with (has to be something with magnetic properties, but wouldn't it by default have both a north and south side, and therefore I wouldn't be able to control whether it approaches my 'boosts' in the right orientation. Perhaps there's a better method of incorporating boosting effects that I'm unaware of?
A little guidance would be great!
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