The Enterprise

Ride Description

The enterprise is a ferris-wheel type ride that inverts the riders at the top of the loop. The ride begins in the horizontal position. As the rotational speed increases, the cars swing outward. Once the rotations are going fast enough, the plane of the rotations is changed from horizontal to vertical.

The graph below is acceleration vs. time for the ride. The periodic nature of the oscillations results from the changing direction of the plane of rotation. At the top of the motion, the acceleration felt by the riders is minimized, while at the bottom of the ride the acceleration feels the greatest.

The accelerometer probe direction is not well determined, at the beginning of the ride, it seems to measure a combination of gravity and radial component due to the rotation. This would be a situation where a 3-axis accelerometer would be helpful.

This page updated 24 Aug. 2001 by David J. Tedeschi
and copyright © 2001, the Board of Trustees of the University of South Carolina.