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The Physics Behind the Giant Drop Ride
Summary: Examines the physics behind the Giant Drop, a free fall ride which allows the rider to experience the feeling of weightlessness. Extols the ride as an example of Newton's three laws of motion, which can be seen when the gondola is at the drop point, falling, and braking.
The Giant Drop is a free fall ride, which allows the rider to experience the feeling of weightlessness. Essentially, it is a gondola, which is lifted 120 metres above the ground along a thick pole, then dropped and stopped before reaching the ground.
As the gondola travels upwards electrically by a winch, electrical energy is being transformed into gravitational potential energy, which builds up as the gondola gets nearer to the top. The gondola is then dropped and free-falls, where gravitational potential is transformed into kinetic energy. During this time the gondola accelerates. A sophisticated magnetic braking system then slows and stops the gondola near to the ground, and the gondola decelerates.
Data collection:
The initial data collected was the times during free fall, and the times during braking. This was done using a stopwatch. Obviously timing errors could have occurred because of human error and reaction time, but...
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This section contains 2,038 words (approx. 7 pages at 300 words per page) |
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