Meeting #9

Venue: Zhang Hui's House
Date: 9 Dec (Friday)
Time: 1pm to 4pm
Present: Amrit, Sarah, Shu Wei and Zhang Hui
Absent: None

Our Discussion
1. Read through the websites but did not quite understand the content
2.Did the minutes for previous and today's

Tasks to be done (15 Dec)
1. Re-read the website's given

Recorded by:
Zhanghui, Sarah, Shu Wei and Amrit

Meeting #8

Venue: School
Date: 2 Dec (Friday)
Time: 1.30pm to 2.30pm
Present: Mr Yeo, Sarah, Shu Wei and Zhang Hui
Absent: Amrit (food poisoning)

Our Discussion
1. Discussed on Differentiation
2. Discussed the possibilities of the end of our project
3. Explained to us how his method of finding the curvatures was not feasible

Tasks to be done (by 9 Dec)
1. Find how to calculate momentum
2. Research more about calculating related topics (eg. kinetic/potential energy)

Recorded by:
Zhang Hui, Shu Wei and Sarah

Meeting #7

Venue: school
Date: 22 Nov (Fri)
Time: 0830-1030
Present: Shu Wei, Sarah, Amrit
Absent: Zhang Hui


Our Discussion
1. Finalize the definition of ‘thrill’
–the thrill of a drop is the product of the angle of the steepest descent in the drop (in radians) and the total vertical distance in the drop. The thrill of the coaster is the sum of the thrills of each drop.

2. Learnt the programming of Graphmatica

3. Learnt the topic on differentiation other new mathematical skills which will aid us in our project. (see below)

Peak/ valley = dy/dx = 0 Steepest incli = 2x ^2 -7x ^4 + 10x ^2 + 6 for

-1 (smaller then or equals to) x (smaller then or equals to) 1.5
nation = dy/dx = maximum absolute value
Therefore, dy/dx = slope = inclination


Tasks to be done (by 2 Dec)
Ø Download Graphmatica from here
Ø Homework (using aforementioned Graphmatica)

Equation:

y = 2x ^2 - 7x ^4 +10x ^2 + 6 for

-1 (smaller then or equals to) x (smaller then or equals to) 1.5

1. Find dy/dx
2. Put it into Graphmatica and the visible area of the graph should be

-1 (smaller then or equals to) x (smaller then or equals to) 1.5

3. Find x when dy/dx =0

4. Identify the peaks and valleys

5. Find x that have the steepest descent/ascent

6. Find the angles of the steepest descent/ascent (using a tangent).

Recorded by: Shu Wei, Sarah, Amrit and Zhang Hui

Meeting #5

Venue: School
Date: 15 Nov 05
Time: 1.30-2.30
Present: Amrit, Shu Wei, Sarah, Zhang Hui, Mr Yeo
Absent: Nil

Our Discussion
1. Discussed the possibilities of using Maple (Maths software) to aid us in our research

2. Mr Yeo explained to us the concepts used in this worksheet

3. Mr Yeo used our survey to survey us
- Came to the conclusion that our survey was too vague and most probably not workable

Tasks to be done (by 22 Nov)
1. Amrit to check if her Mother has Maple in her office
2. Edit our survey to make it better (see above; point 3)
3. Find alternative definitons of "thrill" (if any)

Recorded by: Amrit, Sarah and Zhang Hui

Meeting #4

Venue: Sarah's House
Date: 8th Nov(tues)
Time: 1p.m. to 5p.m.
Present: Sarah, Shu Wei, Zhang Hui
Absent: AMRIT

Our Discussion
1. Decided to create this blog to record minutes
- Recorded minutes for both meetings on 7th and 8th November

2. Found the statistics of some roller coasters
- See them here

3. Decided to try and get the game that simulates roller coasters
- It is called Roller Coaster Tycoon
- Shu Wei's brother, as well as Zhang Hui's cousin, has it, so we need not buy it

4. Found a site that could define and calculate thrills of a few existing roller coasters as well as our own
- See it here; but you will have to download a program. We have not tried it as of yet, but it seems good.

5. Decided to work out a survey to find out what kind of roller coaster the general public (we will get a range of ages) find "thrilling", and base our idea of "thrilling" and "ideal" off that.

Tasks to be done (if possible by 15 Nov)
1. Create a survey (see above; point 5), if possible start circulating it
2. Try out the site mentioned in point 4
3. Decide what changes to be made to increase its 'thrill', with its safety measures unchanged

Recorded by:
Sarah, Shu Wei & Zhang Hui

Meeting #3

Venue: School
Date: 7th Nov(mon)
Time: 10a.m.to 11a.m.
Present: Amrit, Sarah, Shu Wei, Zhang Hui and Mr Yeo
Absent: None

Our Discussion
1. Chose between Casino and Roller Coaster
- decided that casino was impossible for us to do
- Left with Roller Coaster

2. Planned out what we were about to do for the roller coaster topic
- thought of building a model of a roller coaster
- decided to find out the dimensions of exsisting roller coasters for comparison with ours (scale)
- thought of things that made the roller coasters 'thrilling'
- modified our tentative model to make it what we think is 'ideal'

Tasks to be done (by 15 Nov)
1. Find out definition of THRILLS and if it can be calculated
2. Find out the dimensions and speeds of exsisting roller coasters
3. Based on what we have found, calculate their 'amount of thrill'
4. Decide what changes to be made to increase its 'thrill', with its safety measures unchanged

Recorded by:
Sarah, Zhang Hui and Shu Wei