By: Ian Flader, Tyler Breeding, Uchung Whang, and Nick Rutledge

The Table Eight Tornado

Starting Lineup

The goal of our project is to create a device that will simulate the motion of a roller coaster.

A good portion of the materials used in this project were considered to be discard materials that we found. However, we did have to make some purchases with the project, but the cost did not exceed $38 by our estimates.

Introduction

The goal of our project is to create a device that will simulate the motion of a roller coaster. The object completing the run will be a small metal ball, and the direction it will take will be one similar to the spiral of a tornado.

Once at the bottom, the object will launch into a catch and will fall down the catch onto the “trigger” of a set mouse trap. Wired to the mouse trap is an interrupted section of the load-bearing wire of an extension cord. Once the ball hits and trips the trap, the catch of the trap will come down on the two leads of the wire to establish a circuit, which will then trigger a set of lights and a radio.

Overview

The Table Eight Tornado

Energy Conversions

Ball Potential Energy (Gravitational) Kinetic

Energy Ball entering catch (funnel)

Potential Energy (Gravitational) + Kinetic Energy Kinetic Energy

Mouse Trap Elastic Potential Energy Rotational

Kinetic Energy

Conclusion

Construction took 7 hours by all four teammates.

Problems occurred in: Launch angles giving different run times

and causing the ball to stop. Keeping pipes upright. Having the funnel positioned to trigger

mouse trap. We, along with Patrick Berge, are

devout fans of Johnny Cash (R.I.P.).