Comments on: Rotonda West & Capturing Curiosity

By: Bryan Anderson

Bryan Anderson — Fri, 25 Jul 2014 22:15:15 +0000

Had a thought on how to use this in class, forget to post it. I would probably approach this with my 8th graders via Hot Wheels. They have awesome flexi-tracks and students could model the slide and run tests. They could weigh cars and determine how it effects the speed during the ride.

By: Bryan Anderson

Bryan Anderson — Sun, 20 Jul 2014 10:08:48 +0000

A few questions come to mind:

How many people will fit on the stairs to this slide (assuming one person per step)?

If there were no people waiting on the steps, what is the ratio of climb time to ride time?

How much faster does the slide become with added weight?

If there were 2 of these slides side by side, would you or your friend reach the bottom first? By how much?

By: Nathaniel Westlake Amrine

Nathaniel Westlake Amrine — Sat, 19 Jul 2014 13:11:50 +0000

Dan –

A few months back I saw the water slide working through final preparations – thanks for the video of the first test trial. I would expect middle school kids would watch the video and think, “WOW, that’s awesome!” but not really much else. I approached it through the whole “slope” lens but couldn’t get anywhere without it feeling to contrived.

As for the rotunda, love that picture and what it represents -especially if you show students this (http://www.rotondawest.org/) first and ask them what they find interesting.

“What, you find nothing about this website interesting? Well, I didn’t either until I looked at the community from above!”

Bam, instant student engagement.

By: Bethany

Bethany — Thu, 17 Jul 2014 13:50:49 +0000

I am curious how long it took them to descend and how fast they were going. A question for the students… do you think, if you went on that ride that you would go faster, slower, or the same speed as the folks in the video?

By: Ron Fischman

Ron Fischman — Wed, 16 Jul 2014 22:03:59 +0000

Fermi questions?

Dan,

I have been thinking about Fermi questions a lot recently, since having a look at some of the coding for the simple(?) games on one of the sites for which I blog. In the case of the Rotonda, the question that comes to mind is how many linear feet of aluminum siding was consumed to protect all that drywall. In the Schlitterbahn example, while there are too many to mention, I’ll start with this one: If the 345-lb guy was the rider, and the initial drop was maintained, how long would the track have to be to slow the luge down to zero assuming Schlitterbahn’s coefficient of friction? On a frictionless track (don’t laugh)?

Of course, this assumes that the rider doesn’t think to unbutton his shirt and use it as a sail.

For those who don’t know, a Fermi question is one that can only be answered by conjecture using orders of magnitude, like how many civilizations are out there in the galaxy who could be listening to our communications.

By: Howard Phillips

Howard Phillips — Wed, 16 Jul 2014 17:42:07 +0000

And I forgot to mention that the rotunda route B appears to require an off-road vehicle. May have to traverse half of the innermost road circle.

By: Howard Phillips

Howard Phillips — Wed, 16 Jul 2014 17:39:58 +0000

Hello Dan
I watched the video and I read the article and the comments. The really interesting, though mathematically challenging bit is dealing with the comment from the big guy (345lb). Would he shoot off the top of the bump into thin air (or space).
An investigation into attitudes among the students towards this and thrill rides in general could come up with some unexpected conclusions about people, and some real uses for statitiscs…..
And here is an outline of a very practical decision making problem: Your dad gives each of you 20 ride tokens for the day. Most rides cost 2 or 3 tokens, this one costs 6. “Still want to go on it?”. (or a variation)