3D View and Some Calculations Start

And here we have the NEW layout. (Again.) But I'm not changing it anymore. Promise. I've already started doing some calculations (which are beneath the picture), and even though they don't quite add up (for reasons explained below), I'm really happy with this very generic-inspired yet unique design. I really kept it close to the drawn layout as in the previous post, though I had to change a number of heights as we wouldn't want any track to hit other track because, well, it wouldn't be good.

3d view of the layout, taken from the previous post's sketched layout. And yes, there WILL be supports, just haven't put them in yet in case I need to alter anything as they make it so painful.

So, beginning calculations.
What's the first thing people ask about a roller coaster? "How fast does it go!?" And in order to find the velocity, we need to know a number of other things.

I'm looking at the entire train as a particle for right now, which could cause a number of errors as it's much larger than a particle. (The other way to look at something is a "rigid body". A particle has negligible size, which...this does not.) But just to sort of get a feel, this is how I'm doing it for right now. Assuming an average weight of 1400 [lb] per 2-across car (estimated from Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters, Inc website), at 6-cars per train, the weight of one train is approximately 8400 [lb].

Since velocity is the integral of acceleration, and we know the acceleration (GRAVITY!) we can find an equation for velocity. Now, this acceleration does not take into account the 5 [mph] lift speed, simply because the acceleration is 0 once the train reaches its 5 [mph]. If it were accelerating, it would be increasing speed all the way up the lift. So the acceleration is 31.17 [ft/s^2]. The equation (v = v0 - a*t) becomes v = 7.33 - 32.17t. The 7.33 is simply the 5 [mph] lift speed converted to [ft/s].

After getting the position equation (y = y0 + v0*t - a*t^2), we know that the coaster's hill bottoms out at 9.5 feet above ground. We can then solve for t in the position equation, plug that into the velocity equation and get a velocity of the train at the bottom of the first hill. After doing this, we get t = 1.907 [s] and v = 54.018 [ft/s] which converts to just over 79 [mph]. This does NOT seem right for a coaster only 112 feet tall. So what could have gone wrong?

Well, for one, there's no friction accounted for, and as I stated before, I've considered this as a particle, which it clearly isn't, and I should likely get something more accurate when I consider the train as a rigid body.

Until the next update!

So I've decided to scrap that other layout because it was giving me far too much of a headache trying to deal with scales and accurate heights and radii and things. The new much simplified, much condensed, much smaller, much more model-centric layout:

Now I'm working on the side-profile, then I'll be doing calculations on potential & kinetic energy, speed/velocity, acceleration, g-forces on the rider, and I suppose I'll have to do some support stresses.

When I chose this project I just sort of pictured that I'd make a NoLimits coaster, and boom it'd basically be done. NOPE. I WAS VERY WRONG.

Anyway, this is the latest update for all zero of you following along!