
MIT students build a roller coaster in one week - moeamaya
http://monograph.io/eastcampus/2014-mit-east-campus-coaster
======
msandford
Did anybody else laugh at the idea of using 2 grade 5 1" bolts per 2x4? I know
wood is strong and all, but it's not that strong! They could have held it all
together quite successfully with some 3" deck screws or 3/8" lag bolts.

By using such big bolts they actually made the structure less safe because
they had to drill very large holes; those holes made the wood weaker than it
otherwise would have been. I don't know who at MIT insisted that they use 1"
bolts but that person had no business sticking their nose in.

~~~
moeamaya
Ben mentions his frustrations in his blog: Despite my personal opinion that
these changes were unnecessary and frankly absurd (in addition to costly: 1"
bolts cost around $10 apiece), we didn't really have any choice but to make
the changes. After all, for the Cambridge and MIT to let us build this thing
and have people ride it, we absolutely needed our plans to be signed off by a
professional engineer.

The Roller Coaster used to be an annual tradition but was put on hold the past
few years because of EHS regulations and safety concerns. I know they really
wanted to build it this year, so they obliged with the request.

~~~
msandford
Seems like that PE maybe shouldn't have a stamp. I'm not saying they're
definitely incompetent and should have it taken away, but it kind-of makes you
wonder.

~~~
tonyarkles
I'm guessing it was "err on the side of overkill". Probably better than "err
on the side of someone dying" while not wanting to bill too many hours doing
detailed analysis to figure out what the cheapest solution would be that would
still meet safety requirements.

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Animats
The support structure may be overdesigned, but that's OK. What bothers me is
how the cart attaches to the track. Here's a view of that:

[http://formlabs.com/en/company/blog/2014/08/27/from-3d-print...](http://formlabs.com/en/company/blog/2014/08/27/from-3d-print-
to-rideable-rollercoaster/)

The retention wheels are just riding on the underside of the plywood sheets.
If they had a jam at a track joint, those might tear through the plywood or
break off, allowing the car to derail and fall off the track. Unsupported
plywood edges are weak and not good working surfaces.

Here's a standard roller coaster wheel assembly, with six wheels.

[http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/files/dsc_0207_3.jpg](http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/files/dsc_0207_3.jpg)

Any 3 wheels can fail without serious trouble.

~~~
Someone
Any 3? If the top two fail, the assembly drops from the rail, doesn't it? If
the bottom two break off, the thing could derail in a negative g track part.

I would think that is only true if we consider that cars have more than one of
these.

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iammaxus
We are proud to say that Ben Katz, one of the leaders and designers of the
project interned at Formlabs over the summer and used our printers to make a
beautiful detailed model of the roller coaster.

[http://formlabs.com/en/company/blog/2014/08/15/formlabs-
engi...](http://formlabs.com/en/company/blog/2014/08/15/formlabs-engineering-
meet-ben-katz/)

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thejerz
There's something about "roller coaster" and "built in one week" that doesn't
sit well.

~~~
fit2rule
Come on, really? Plenty of great houses have been built in a week, lots of
other workable structures in less time ..

~~~
sucramb
And skyscrapers in two weeks...
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajlUVSiUvWg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajlUVSiUvWg)

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ada1981
I would have liked to see a loop combined with a gyroscopic chair, so no
person is actually upside-down. It also seems like these are the sorts of
things you are supposed to just build without university approval ala Real
Genius.

~~~
fortawesome
MIT used to ignore this sort of thing and let it happen. After some students
died roof and tunnel hacking, the attitude slowly changed, sadly. You can't do
it without approval anymore.

~~~
Zigurd
I don't recall any deaths from roof and tunnel hacking. There are serious
potential hazards. There is a case to be made for securing the roof of
building 54 to deter suicides. But it appears that the much stronger security
measures and much stiffer punishment for unauthorized roof and tunnel hacking
since the '80s were not motivated by fatal events.

~~~
fortawesome
You are quite correct. Apparently I was mis-remembering. After doing some
digging, I found the incident I was thinking of:

In January 2006 a freshman fell through a skylight and broke several bones:
[http://tech.mit.edu/V125/N65/65skylight.html](http://tech.mit.edu/V125/N65/65skylight.html).
This seems to be what started changing attitudes.

~~~
Zigurd
Here's another one. East Campus freshmen are evidently hard to kill:
[http://tech.mit.edu/V119/N62/62shaft.62n.html](http://tech.mit.edu/V119/N62/62shaft.62n.html)

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ackalker
"EHS said No Upside-Down People. Period."

Well, they didn't say anything about cows, did they?

Hey guys, you're MIT hackers. Involve a cow, will you? Upside-down, if at all
possible...

~~~
pokpokpok
I welcome any hack that involves consenting parties

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willvarfar
Did they point out to all passengers that there was no stop block at the top
of that final incline do you think? Get the mind racing that would ;)

~~~
wolfgke
I think the end is as least as high as the beginning, so by energy
conversation there should be no danger.

Additionally there is probably so much friction in the system that it should
not be necessary.

~~~
willvarfar
I did not suggest it was unsafe. I was suggesting they say to each new
passenger "have you seen there's nothing to stop you going off the end?" just
before they release the cart...

~~~
demarq
and "is pete back from the hospital?"

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afarrell
This is attempted every year, the rush chairs were just on-point with project
management this year.

~~~
fortawesome
Yep. Been a big rush event for a while now. IIRC, Mark Feldmeier was a big
part of the first incarnation. Such an awesome dorm. Always making stuff.

It was (is?) a big center of roof and tunnel hacking. One guy from my floor
went out every night for a couple of years trying to collect all of Sophicles'
sign-ins. And don't forget the Oddball Olympics. I remember the Master Lock
picking event usually being won in less than 10 seconds.

~~~
peter_l_downs
You know Feldmeier? Awesome! I'm living in SH right now and he's always coming
by and sparking interesting conversations. A month or two ago we held a
showing of his re-soundtracked Metropolis – all techno music instead of the
original score. What a great guy!

~~~
fortawesome
Feldmeier is my candidate for the most interesting man in the world. I
remember stories about how one summer while interning at Apple, he voluntarily
lived under a bridge. Then there was the year he lived in one of the 2W
closets while I was there (2W, not the closet).

He's one of my favorite East Campus folks to tell stories about. Awesome guy.

~~~
fortawesome
Oh. And he saved my life once. I'm not kidding. Kept me from going off the EC
roof while sending a couch off.

------
leephillips
Aren't they a little _young_ to be building roller coasters?

~~~
ykl
"Why yes. Yes [they] are."

~~~
chrisbennet
Phineus and Ferb reference:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdmvmw_Ra80](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdmvmw_Ra80)

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jpmattia
Excuse the inside baseball, but old 5W EC dude from '86 raises his glass (of
coffee at this hour) in your guys' general direction.

~~~
losvedir
5W '07 checking in. I think the first roller coaster for EC rush was around my
junior year. I'm glad to see the tradition is still going strong!

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TylerE
This is pretty much the gold standard, built by ONE guy...

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gcoV3MkmY8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gcoV3MkmY8)

Took a lot longer than a week, I'm sure, but it's an actual proper coaster. He
later went on to work for one of the coaster companies for awhile IIRC.

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kdavis
Next time start it off the top of the Green Building!

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ordinathorreur
As a skateboarder I could see this being a lot of fun. It would be great if
the project could be donated to a local skatepark once taken down.

~~~
andrewbarba
Believe it or not, we have zero skateparks in Boston. There are plans to build
a pretty extensive one however I haven't seen any real progress being made.

~~~
crazyjayd
I was going to say, I hope someone got the chance to ride a skateboard on
there. I would. We have a few parks outside of Boston. Nothing crazy, but
better than nothing.

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lnanek2
Kind of lame they weren't allowed to put a loop in. You are just as well off
sledding down a hill at what they ended up with.

~~~
papad
Ha totally agree. The loops and vicious turns are central to a roller coaster
(and being tied to the track). Without those, sledding is way better cause you
can get some serious airtime on the right hills and have some control over
your direction too.

Overall a neat project for a large college team to work together on but the
end product doesn't appear that functional/fun.

~~~
matt_morgan
Doesn't appear fun? Stop thinking for a minute!

I want to ride it. My son would love to ride it.

~~~
papad
You definitely have the right perspective. If I put my kid's hat on, it
definitely would be fun. Doing the simplest things with my nieces and nephews
are extremely fun :)

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canjobear
While this is awesome work, I find it sad that those involved seem to have
cheerfully acquiesced to the diktats of a safety- and image-obsessed
administration.

Or perhaps their true attitude just wasn't appropriate for this blog post.

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cdnsteve
Get rid of the end vertical and make it launch you into a foam pit. I can see
some "midnight" modifications for a 1.1 release.

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brador
How do they get it back to the starting position? It's not shown in the vid.

~~~
justfane
It doesn't have enough momentum to fully go up the last 'slope' so it rolls
back down with the momentum to get back to the starting position... I believe
that's what i gathered from the end of the page.

~~~
aidos
At least it might have if that pesky physics hadn't gotten in the way, again.

They probably just pull it up with a rope or something.

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sangwen
Look up to these east campus kids!!

