THE DEVASTATORA Coaster by

Daniel Lorance,James Lacy,

Christina Fraser,and Alexander Bresee.

The Ultimate Coaster

You may never again experience a coaster so alarming as the devastator.Sweat drips down your neck as you step into the Devastator. The door of the ride-sphere seals shut with a hiss. You know you only have 20 seconds of oxygen in the room. You’ll only need 15.You don’t even have time to be nervous as the ride begins. The helical turn pushes you into the side of the capsule. You don’t know your top from your bottom as you then plummet into the first loop. Gravity assaults you from an unnatural direction as you are forced through the skewed loop. The last helix is the last one in your life as the ride ends and darkness takes you. Your consciousness fades…

You’re just another victim of

The Devastator.

Energy in a Coaster:mgh and (1/2)mv2

The Energy in a coaster can never exceed the potential energy at the initial point. Any time the Y value of the ball decreases, the kinetic energy increases. Anytime the Y value increases, the potential energy increases.The whole time the ball experiences losses due to friction and inelastic collisions with the walls of the track-guide. Our coaster begins with all potential, calculated by mgh. The energy turns into kinetic as the ride sphere speeds up. Kinetic increases slowly, then quickly increases, then back to potential then back to kinetic as it goes through the loops, then again a slower transfer of energy as it goes through the last helical turn and ends.

Design and Construction issues

Several designs were initially considered and dismissed. A cycloidal track was initially a front runner for design, but was found to be unfeasible due to size constraints.

Tubing is a difficult construction material, but it makes up for it by more directly controlling the motion of the ball than other track-guide media.

If built to scale, it would be the tallest coaster in the world by a factor of about 2 at 800ft

Conclusion

Some of the materials were surprisingly difficult to work with; tubing is difficult to tame.

Planning a work schedule is critical. Coaster may possibly be too devastating.

Future design revisions would do well to attempt to reduce the devastation.