Physics SPIN Club at UNH (Aidan)

Hi. I'm Rus. I have had a really fun time at UNH this year. I went to a program where we learned how
to use physics to make ski jumps and roller coasters. Our first project was a ski jump. We used Styrofoam tubes, cups, tape, and a box. We needed to make the marble land in the cup. We learned that to make the marble jump we needed speed and a smaller jump so that the marble could jump off of it. If the marble couldn't go over the jump we would either have to make the jump smaller, or the hill bigger. We worked in groups of 2. In the middle of our building, we would stop, get together with the whole group, and tell what was working and what was not. We finally got the marble to land in the cup. After the first week we used the next two weeks to make a roller coaster with hills and valleys. We used 3 tubes and worked with the same stuff and the same groups. We needed to make the marble go over as many hills and valleys as possible, and we tried to make the ride last as long as possible. Our first roller coaster did not work. The marble always jumped off the side of the track. We had trouble fitting the tubes together, and we did not have as many hills and valleys as we needed. We learned from our mistakes. Our second coaster was a complete success. After that we did a loop to loop. We had trouble with getting enough speed for the marble to go around the loop. We worked in different groups this time. We worked in groups of 3. We taped our loop to the wall. The next thing we created was a spiral. The spiral was challenging, and we needed two separate tubes. The first one was for the hill, and the second was for the spiral. The last week was when we put everything together. Our first tube was the hill. Our next was a loop to loop taped to a table. Then our third was a hill and a valley which led into a cup. We made fences to keep the marble on track. I had lots of fun making things using physics, and I became a UNH graduate!