Lauren+and+Sarah+G


 * ACTIVITY A: The First Drop of a Roller Coaster **

NITRO Data from Ali and Nicole, Period 2

1) Estimate distances and angles the Bottom of the Hill || Radius of curve at the Bottom of hill || Angle of Intial Incline up and the Angle of the Initial incline down ||
 * PART A) At the park **
 * Height of Starting Point || Height of the Top of the Hill || Height of
 * 0 m || 71 m || 5 m || 35 m || 68, 252 degrees ||

2) Measure time


 * Trials: || To Travel up First Hill(s) || To Travel Down First Hill (s) ||
 * Trial 1: || 47.9 || 5.5 ||
 * Trial 2: || 48.1 || 6.2 ||
 * Trial 3: || 48.2 || 4.9 ||
 * Trial 4: || 48.3 || 6.1 ||
 * Trial 5: || 48 || 5.9 ||
 * Average || 48.2 || 5.72 ||

3) Diagrams a. FBD of car on the way up, on the way down, and at the bottom of the first hill Way up: Way down: At bottom:

b. FBD of mass on a string at various positions on the way up, on the way down, and at the bottom of the first hill

c. Labeled sketch of relevant portion of the roller coaster d. Take a clear side view picture

http://www.ic.stonybrook.edu/Stu/jjenco/hw3/amusement.html

4) Graphs a. Create d vs. t, v vs. t and a vs. t graph for the motion this segment of the ride.  b. Create a thrill vs. acceleration graph for this segment of the ride.  Evaluate
 * 1) [[image:honorsphysicsrocks/Screen_Shot_2012-05-28_at_11.18.35_PM.png width="261" height="191"]]
 * 2) [[image:honorsphysicsrocks/Screen_Shot_2012-05-28_at_11.18.52_PM.png width="291" height="204"]]
 * 3) [[image:honorsphysicsrocks/Screen_Shot_2012-05-28_at_11.19.55_PM.png width="269" height="192"]]
 * 1) Safety: What features were in place?
 * 2) There was a bar to go across the lap of the passenger to keep you in place while going on the large hills and valleys. This, along with the waist belt, kept you locked into the seat.
 * 3) Describe the weight sensations on the way up, on the way down, and at the bottom of the first hill: did you feel lighter, heavier, or normal?
 * 4) On the way up, you are pushed back and feel heavier. On the way down, you feel lighter. At the bottom, you feel normal because the only forces acting upon you (normal and weight) equal each other. It all has to do with apparent weight.
 * 5) Describe the excitement level: on the way up, on the way down, and at the bottom of the first hill.
 * 6) On the way up, you feel anxious for the upcoming drop. It is less exciting and slower. Going down is when the real excitement happens, you start to feel the adrenaline rush of the speed and drop because of the acceleration. At the bottom of the hill, you are less anxious but still feel something do to the changing of direction.
 * 7) Describe the thrill factors that may contribute to those feelings (besides the #g’s)
 * 8) The speed, the high drops, and the sharp turns causing sudden changes in direction are all part of the excitement on this ride.

1) Calculate Experimental Values a. Speed at bottom of the first hill
 * Part B) Back at School **

cos(theta) = height / distance cos(292) = 71 / distance distance = 189.53 m

b. Acceleration down the first hill c. Power needed to get up the hill 2) Calculate Theoretic Values a. Speed at bottom of the first hill  b. Acceleration down the first hill  c. Power needed to get up the hill


 * 1) Evaluate Accuracy of the 3 calculations above.




 * 1) The power calculation is off because it requires the mass and we only used the mass of us, not us in the cart. The acceleration and velocity calculations should be pretty accurate assuming that the measured distances are accurate.
 * 2) Evaluate Safety
 * 3) Calculate #g’s on the way down the hill and at the bottom of the hill
 * 4) g=a/g
 * 5) g= 3.41/9.8
 * 6) # of gs= .35
 * 7) Were #g’s within safe limits
 * 8) Yes, it is less than 6.
 * 9) Was there correlation between #g’s and excitement level? Explain, providing evidence.
 * 10) Yes, it looks like that the excitement level increases as the number of g's increases. Looking at the graphs, there is no thrill with there is no acceleration, but thrill increases when acceleration increases.
 * 11) Thinking about Physics
 * 12) Explain the behavior of the mass on the string. Did the FBD of the car correlate to that of the mass? Why or why not?
 * 13) Yes the mass of the string correlated to our FBD of the car. When the string leaned forward being "tugged" up the coaster, so did the car. When the string evened out at the top of a hill, as did the FBD.
 * 14) Did the #g’s correlate to the sensation of weight?
 * 15) Yes because as the number of g's increase, so does apparent weight.
 * 16) Discuss the graphs that you created and why they curve the way that they do.
 * 17) D vs T
 * 18) The graph has a slow incline because that is how the ride starts. The graph then has a steeper slope and as the cart goes down the hill due to the speed and acceleration increasing that means there is more distance being covered in a shorter amount of time.
 * 19) V vs T
 * 20) Velocity is constant on the way up to the first drop and then velocity increases.
 * 21) A vs T
 * 22) There is no acceleration at first because there is a constant velocity on the way to the first drop. As the car goes down the hill, the velocity increases and changes on the hills and valleys therefore the acceleration increases.
 * 23) Thrill vs Acceleration
 * 24) There is no thrill because there is no acceleration but once the cart goes over the first hill down the drop the thrill amount increases for the rider.


 * ACTIVITY B: A Vertical Loop of a Roller Coaster **

GREEN LANTERN

http://honorsphysicsrocks.wikispaces.com/Stephanie_and_Jon All data was taken from Stephanie and Jon's wiki. :)
 * PART A: At the park: **

FBD of car or rider at top position

FBD of mass on a string at top position jagthemoviebuff.blogspot.com
 * 1) c. Labeled sketch of roller coaster side view
 * 1) d. Take a clear side view picture

__Graphs__ v vs. t graph: Fc vs. t graph: a vs. t graph for the motion this segment of the ride: thrill vs. acceleration graph for this segment of the ride:

__Evaluate:__

a) The most important safety feature is the big metal bar that holds you to the ride. The riders also aren’t allowed to carry on loose items since this could be dangerous. b) At the bottom there are the most g’s, thus making you feel more excited. The side would be exhilarating because you’re going higher and higher up on the loop, however there aren’t as many g’s as the bottom. The excitement level would be high at the top because you are standing upside down even though this location has less g’s than at the bottom. c) Since the riders are standing during the ride this contributes to the thrill factor significantly. It is also very fast, going 63 mph. Lastly, it’s height increases the thrill factor. d) At the bottom you would feel heavier. At the top you would feel almost weightless. At the side you would feel a normal weight.

__Calculate Experimental Values__
 * PART B) Back at School **

Speed at top of loop: Centripetal Acceleration Apparent weight at top of loop __Calculate Theoretical Values:__

Minimum speed at top of loop: Speed at top of loop

^This velocity calculation shows the velocity if all the mass was concentrated at the front of the cart even though the cart is 10 m long. I used this value because it was closer to the experimental values. This velocity calculation puts all the mass in the middle of the cart to take an average of the cart. This value wasn't as close as the other value to the experimental values, so I didn't use it. Centripetal Acceleration Apparent weight at top of loop Error: velocity, centripetal acceleration, apparent weight.
 * g’s



Error Analysis: The percent error for velocity was only 9.3% which shows that our experimental velocity is fairly accurate compared to our theoretical considering that the data collected were done by people and there is always going to be human error. Our centripetal acceleration was also very accurate with only a 1.9% error. Unfortunately we couldn't calculate the percent error of the apparent weight because our theoretical value is zero. There is a significant difference between the experimental apparent weight (47.4 N) and the theoretical (0N) because there is still some normal force in real life that we do not include in the theoretical.

Evaluate Safety: > b) There is definitely a correleation between #g’s and excitement level. At the bottom people scream the loudest because there are the greatest amount of g’s there so you are accelerating the most. However, there are other ways to increase excitement level, specifically standing upside down at the top of a huge loop. v vs t graph: The graph starts with a velocity of zero at the top of the hill and then there is a negative velocity because you go backwards. Then you go to the forward at high velocity. Then as you near the top of the loop you go down to the x axis until you eventually pass the x axis and have a higher velocity in the negative direction.
 * 1) a) The g’s were within safe limits. The number of g’s at the top of the loop was 1.09 which is definitely below the number of g’s that it would take to make someone pass out.
 * 1) Thinking about the Physics
 * 2) Explain the behavior of the mass on the string. Did the FBD of the car correlate to that of the mass? Why or why not? Yes it did because even though the weight was pulling it down there was still tension from the spring.
 * 3) Did the #g’s correlate to the sensation of weight? Yes because as the g's increase so does the apparent weight.
 * 4) Discuss the graphs that you created and why they curve the way that they do.

Fc vs t: You don't have centripetal force until you are on the loop so that is why there is a straight line at zero. Then you start on the loop which is when the Fc becomes very high and then goes down to zero and then picks up again as you round out the loop.

a vs t: You have a great negative acceleration until you get to the loop which is when the acceleration because a smaller negative number.

a vs thrill: It doesn't matter that the acceleration is in the negative of positive direction (left or right) the thrill still increases as the acceleration increases which is why it looks like a "v"