Nice Wheels

The product of our countless hours of teamwork and dedication: Nice Wheels

Construction Day 4 (Final)

Today was our final meet up for the rollercoaster. After completing the first vertical loop from the previous gathering, our intentions were to finish off the 2 hills and banked turn. We started off by constructing the first hill to an approximate height of 15cm by using another 3 metre strip of aluminium. After accomplishing this, we attached our hot wheels “banked turn”. Since the width of the tracks were similar, the tracks would be compatible with the pre-existing aluminium strip, and these were attached by screws. For the barriers, we had 2 reinforcements. An initial strip of foil tape was attached under the bottom of both sides and folded upright to prevent the car from falling off. The second barrier of packaging tape was then placed over the foil tape to maximise the smoothness of the sides. After this, we decided to put our car to the test. Unfortunately, there was one main issue: the hill was unable to create enough kinetic energy to maintain speed to pass the banked turn. After testing this several times, we also noticed that the car would occasionally jump over the hill. Thus, there was only one possible solution to this issue: we had to increase the height of our hill to roughly 25cm. After putting it through another test, the car was still unable to travel through the banked turn and so we made a few minor adjustments. Several books were placed under the platform directly under the entrance of the first vertical loop, along with the placement of books near the bottom of our first hill. This idea would maximise the gravitational potential energy of the car as it travelled through the roller coaster, as well as providing stability to the car. Our theoretical idea turned out to be successful as the rollercoaster was able to generate enough energy to pass through the banked turn.

We finished off with the construction of the final hill and made sure its height was at a minimum: only 5cm in height due to the fact that the banked turn did not provide enough energy to travel up a steep hill. After several finishing touches, we put our car through one final test, which turned out to be successful. The car was able to travel throughout the entire rollercoaster on camera, along with various snapshots of footage of the car passing through each section of the track, wrapping up our rollercoaster project.

Construction Day 3

Today we decided to meet up again in order to continue progress on the roller coaster after most of our year 10 examinations. In light of the lack of progress in the past two construction days, it was essential that we started to make substantial progress on our roller coaster as the roller coaster is due on Friday. As a result, upon considering our material choices and reflecting on similar past projects in Engineering course, we decided to purchase two 40mm x 3mm x 3m (L x W x B) strips of aluminium in order to construct our tracks. We used foil tape in combination with packaging tape to create a sturdy wall on either side of the aluminium strip to create the track. This ensures the car does not derail. The foil tape maximizes the strength of the wall (as it is dense in metallic material) while the packaging tape provides a smooth layer and prevents the car from sticking to the foil tape (since the sticky side will be exposed towards the car). Furthermore, the length of aluminium also minimizes the friction between the car’s wheels and the surface, unlike the rough surface of the cardboard strips.

We constructed a slope and the loop by bending the aluminium strip around spherical and cylindrical objects (such as paint containers). Unlike past construction materials, this strip had the right balance between malleability and elasticity, enabling us to effectively use it to construct our roller coaster track. The initial descent slope was also attached to a chair to ensure that the drop is at a >50-degree angle, and that the maximum height of the roller coaster (the drop) is at 75cm. The chair also serves to be a support, as per the requirements on the design specifications. Subsequent to various tests with the toy car, the track was secured onto a thick wooden board at critical points by firstly drilling a hole in the track using a power drill and then countersunk by a deburring tool in order to insert a countersunk screw. These screws were chosen as they both hold the track in place, and ensure the track is smooth, minimising the effect on the car's performance.

We then attempted to create the banked turn of our track using this aluminium strip. However, due to the rigidity and thickness of it, we were unable to succeed in bending the banked turn at the right angle. Thus, we resorted to using a Hotwheels track only for the curved track section of our track, which was acquired from Toy R Us and scheduled its implementation during the next group meet-up on Thursday. We also finalised on the decision to organise the course in the format: 50-degree drop, loop, large hill (to maximise kinetic energy), a banked turn, and finally a smaller hill (due to the lack of kinetic energy at the end of the roller coaster course).