Lab 8

Faculty Notes

The Ride of Your Life!

Mathematics
for
Design Engineering Technology

Prof Jeanne Bowman
AMATYC – Writing Team Members
University of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio
 Prof Peg Greene
AMATYC – Writing Team Members
Florida Community College at Jacksonville
Jacksonville, Florida
MWP Logo

Project Grant Team

John S. Pazdar
Capital Community College
Hartford, Connecticut
 		Karen B. Gaines
St Louis Community College – Meremac
St Louis, Missouri
This project was supported, in part,
by the National Science Foundation.
 Peter A. Wursthorn
Capital Community College
Hartford, Connecticut
Opinions expressed are those of the authors
and not necessarily those of the Foundation. 		Patricia L. Hirschy
Asnuntuck Community College
Enfield, Connecticut

#Introduction

A lot of students are familiar with dark rides at amusement parks, usually as a visitor, but depending on location, some may even have had summer jobs running a ride. So they are interested in, and sometimes very knowledgeable about, how a ride operates.

This project can be approached on different levels depending on the degree of mathematical and technical sophistication shown by the students. Mathematically it could be used by students with little or no background in algebra but could also be used by those with a working knowledge of constructing functions. To complete the project successfully, the students' ability to handle self-directed work is more important than familiarity with specific mathematical topics.

Once students have determined the dispatch time of 18 seconds, they can then determine ways to maximize the hourly capacity of the ride. To understand the timing and placement of cars, students could be encouraged to make a model or drawing of the ride large enough to work with and use coins or other small markers to represent cars as they move through the ride.

As part of the final written and oral presentation for Phase Two, students should do at least one of the following:

As it is written, Phases One and Two of this project are intended to be completed in less than a full academic term. Therefore, they could be used in an existing course as a long-term project. Using Phase Three extends the project by providing a more open-ended assignment. The students have the opportunity to research the necessary material on ride design and construction from the beginning.

Depending on students' interests and academic majors, they may want to emphasize different areas of the project. The architecture of the building itself may interest students of architectural engineering; the construction process may appeal to electrical engineering or building construction majors; scenery design may interest art majors; or the animatronics may have special meaning for graphic arts students.

You may need to make some constraints such as building size, amount of track, timing of the ride, local building codes, handicap access, etc. You may also want to consider the following options:

  1. Companies often design rides so that different themes can be fitted to the same configuration. Students in a group may each wish to develop a unique theme for their group's basic structure. This can be a way of incorporating writing-to-learn exercises into a mathematics course.
  2. Instead of designing the whole ride (or maybe as just a component of the project), students may start designing their ride by planning a particular scene for their theme. This would involve designing the figures and props according to a scale that fits within the constraints of the building. For example, can a dinosaur be constructed to true size? Students could make a scale model of the dinosaur or other figures and scenery.

It is important that you determine what minimum design details students must include, but that you allow them to exercise their creativity as much as possible.

Here are some web sites of interest:

 

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