Calculating Acceleration of Kings Dominion Drop Tower

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around calculating the acceleration of a drop tower ride at Kings Dominion, specifically focusing on the weight of the object that riders are seated on. Participants are exploring the physics involved in freefall and the effects of air resistance on acceleration.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Assumption checking, Conceptual clarification

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • Participants discuss using known values such as drop speed, height, and gravitational acceleration to calculate mass and acceleration. There is a focus on the challenge of accounting for air resistance in these calculations.

Discussion Status

Some participants have suggested methods to calculate acceleration using initial and final speeds along with height, acknowledging the impact of air resistance on the results. There is an ongoing exploration of different interpretations and approaches to the problem, with no explicit consensus reached.

Contextual Notes

Participants mention the difficulty in calculating air resistance and the assumptions made regarding initial conditions and freefall. The original poster expresses frustration over the complexity of the calculations involved.

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Its for my physics project and i have tried searching everywhere but couldn't find it.
It is drop zone of kings dominion and i want to find the weight of the object people are sitting on. Basically the whole circular thing.

can any1 help me?

thank you
 
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I've had a look, can't find anything on it.

If it's for a physics project, you can get the drop speed and you know it's freefall (well I assume it is) so acceleration = gravity and you know the drop height. So why don't you plug these values into some equations and try to calculate the mass yourself? Now that would be impressive...
 
jarednjames said:
I've had a look, can't find anything on it.

If it's for a physics project, you can get the drop speed and you know it's freefall (well I assume it is) so acceleration = gravity and you know the drop height. So why don't you plug these values into some equations and try to calculate the mass yourself? Now that would be impressive...

yea about that i had tried doing that but the thing is i don't know how to calculate for the air resistance which makes it all difficult. i calculated v0, v1, t assuming no air resistance "sigh" on me :(
 
Well, you know the final speed, height and you know the initial speed, from that you can get it's acceleration (it should be less than g so it will give an approximation for air resistance).
 
jarednjames said:
Well, you know the final speed, height and you know the initial speed, from that you can get it's acceleration (it should be less than g so it will give an approximation for air resistance).

the thing is i used g as acceleration do find initial and final velocity
 
Yes, but if you know initial speed (0) and final speed (whatever value in m/s) and you know the height, you can use the equations of motion to get an acceleration value.

Because the final speed will be a 'real' speed attained with air resistance it will give you an acceleration which reflects it.

It's not perfect, but you should get a value for this and value with no resistance and it should give you some sort of 'grey area' to work within.
 
jarednjames said:
Yes, but if you know initial speed (0) and final speed (whatever value in m/s) and you know the height, you can use the equations of motion to get an acceleration value.

Because the final speed will be a 'real' speed attained with air resistance it will give you an acceleration which reflects it.

It's not perfect, but you should get a value for this and value with no resistance and it should give you some sort of 'grey area' to work within.

darn it y didnt i think of it earlier
thanks bro
 

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