The+Claw

For the trip to hersheypark we were asked to study and analyze the physics of a single rind. We chose to do the claw which has to do with conservation of energy, simple harmonic motion (pendulum), and rotational motion. The ride holds 32 people and everyone faces the inside. There are 8 sections of 4 people making the ride looking like a claw. The ride swings like a pendulum while the part that the riders are in rotates. The claw is powered by a motor to gain extra speed until it reaches its highest point of 50 ft. The motion back and forth is simply because of kinetic and potential energy at this point.



It can still be seen roughly that the acceleration increases towards the middle of the ride, when the most action occurs. It is clearly visible that the ride increases in height at the middle of the ride. Two peaks represent one period because the ride swings in two directions to complete one period.

The sections of physics that apply to the ride are conservation of energy, SHM, and rotational motion.
 * Ride Type: ||  || Fixed Ride ||
 * Status: ||  || Operating since 2003 ||
 * Production: ||  ||~ Chance-Morgan Revolution 32 ||
 * Builder: ||  || Chance-Morgan ||
 * Height: ||  || 37' 6" ||
 * RPM: ||  || 9 rpm ||
 * Capacity: ||  || 500 pph ||

Rotational motion: 14 Revolutions per ride. 9 revs per minute for a total of 93 seconds shown as the orange graph above

Simple harmonic motion: Period= 7.8 seconds

Conservation of energy: PE (top) = KE (bottom) mgy=.5mv^2 Mass cancels out so the ride is moving about 27m/s or 60.6mph at the bottom of the motion.

Since we didn't find the length of the pendulum, but we can use the following information to find it.

T = 2π√L/g 7.8 = 2π√L/9.8 L = 15.11m or 50 ft.