Roller Coaster Ramrod

Stephen Swearingen December 6, 2008

Alex Groner

J.R. Lackey

Roller Coaster Ramrod

Stephen Swearingen, Alex Groner, and J.R. Lackey have read and approved this report.

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Abstract

Our task was to construct a roller coaster to get a marble from point A to point B in approximately 15 seconds, within a box that is a half meter cube. The roller coaster is comprised of 3 plastic funnels, PVC pipe, rubber tubing, and cardboard. The marble drops through a tube, where it rotates around a funnel, into a second tube, into another funnel. It then goes down a series of cardboard ramps until it drops into the final funnel where it stops. The total cost of the material for this project was around $20. After a design plan change, we came up with our final design, which was a consistent success, with the marble’s time from Point A to Point B being around 13 to 15 seconds.

Introduction

The purpose of this project was to create a roller coaster that traveled from point A to point B in as close to 15 seconds as possible. The size specifications for the project were that it must fit inside a 0.5 m by 0.5 m by 0.5 m box. The device could fold out to be larger, but it must be able to be assembled in 30 seconds or less. The object being transported could be anything that would move along a track. We were also given a budget of $40 to work with.

Design Process

We decided to use funnels and ramps to transport a marble. This design was used because we believed it was the cheapest and most efficient way to build our roller coaster. We had numerous other designs but none of them were effective. Our first ideas involved using tubing in a spiral. This was ineffective due to our time and size constraints. We also ran into problems with the marble getting stuck inside of our tubing.

Device

Our device consisted of 3 funnels of different sizes, one PVC pipe, tubing, a marble, and cardboard cut outs. The Roller Coaster Ramrod begins with one person dropping a marble into a cut piece of tubing. The marble is then shot through the tube into our first large funnel and spins around for approximately 8 seconds. When it is done spinning the marble drops into a tube connected to the funnel and is shot into our second medium sized funnel. The marble then spins for about 3 seconds and is dropped out onto one of our cardboard ramps. This ramp directs the ball to our group of zig zagging ramps where the marble travels from side to side until it is finally dropped into our final small funnel.

Results

Our roller coaster regularly ran around 13 to 15 seconds. The amount of time usually depended on the initial position of the tube. When we move our roller coaster it has to be adjusted or it will only run around 10 seconds. Overall our device works just as we had planned.

Conclusions

Our device was a complete success. It met all of the specifications that we were given and met the time requirement. Although we ran into many problems with our previous designs, we were able to come up with something that worked. We thought that spirals would be the easiest way to create a roller coaster, but that technique would not work. We also had problems with our final design. When we built the cardboard ramps the marble would run off of the edge. This problem was fixed by placing cardboard on the edges to act as railings. If we could go back and do things differently we would have planned our design more carefully. We ended up just doing trial and error while building our device.

References

Formulas were taken from our Engineering Fundamentals 151 notes.

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Introduction

The purpose of this project was to create a roller coaster that traveled from point A to point B in as close to 15 seconds as possible. The size specifications for the project were that it must fit inside a 0.5 m by 0.5 m by 0.5 m box. The device could fold out to be larger, but it must be able to be assembled in 30 seconds or less. The object being transported could be anything that would move along a track. We were also given a budget of $40 to work with.

Design Process

We decided to use funnels and ramps to transport a marble. This design was used because we believed it was the cheapest and most efficient way to build our roller coaster. We had numerous other designs but none of them were effective. Our first ideas involved using tubing in a spiral. This was ineffective due to our time and size constraints. We also ran into problems with the marble getting stuck inside of our tubing.

Device

Our device consisted of 3 funnels of different sizes, one PVC pipe, tubing, a marble, and cardboard cut outs. The Roller Coaster Ramrod begins with one person dropping a marble into a cut piece of tubing. The marble is then shot through the tube into our first large funnel and spins around for approximately 8 seconds. When it is done spinning the marble drops into a tube connected to the funnel and is shot into our second medium sized funnel. The marble then spins for about 3 seconds and is dropped out onto one of our cardboard ramps. This ramp directs the ball to our group of zig zagging ramps where the marble travels from side to side until it is finally dropped into our final small funnel.

Results

Our roller coaster regularly ran around 13 to 15 seconds. The amount of time usually depended on the initial position of the tube. When we move our roller coaster it has to be adjusted or it will only run around 10 seconds. Overall our device works just as we had planned.

Conclusions

Our device was a complete success. It met all of the specifications that we were given and met the time requirement. Although we ran into many problems with our previous designs, we were able to come up with something that worked. We thought that spirals would be the easiest way to create a roller coaster, but that technique would not work. We also had problems with our final design. When we built the cardboard ramps the marble would run off of the edge. This problem was fixed by placing cardboard on the edges to act as railings. If we could go back and do things differently we would have planned our design more carefully. We ended up just doing trial and error while building our device.

References