linerider

Friction in Line Rider Is there friction in Line Rider? Does it function as physics would expect? To test this, I set up a simple track: ![Page 6 1](http://scienceblogs.com/dotphysics/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/page-6-1…) Basically, a slope with a flat part to start with and to end with. Let me show you something simple before further analysis: ![Page 6 2](http://scienceblogs.com/dotphysics/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/page-6-2…) This is the x-position vs. time for the line rider on the first horizontal portion of the track (before he or she goes down the incline). This shows the rider…
There is no air resistance in line rider. Sorry to spoil the suspense. To test for the presence of an air resistance force, a track was created that let the rider fall. ![linerider air 1](http://scienceblogs.com/dotphysics/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/linerider…) (note the markers on the side. These are used to keep track of how the origin is moving). Below is the y position of the rider as a function of time: ![linerider falling](http://scienceblogs.com/dotphysics/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/linerider…) In this situation, the rider falls about 100 meters. A quadratic line is fit to the data…
Scale of the Line Rider First, we assume that the line rider is on Earth and for low speeds will have a free-falling acceleration of 9.8 m/s2. Next, an arbitrary distance is selected. In this case the length of the sled is chosen to be 1 LU (Linerider Unit). ![line rider](http://scienceblogs.com/dotphysics/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/line-ride…) The goal will be to put the linerider in a free fall (where air resistance should be able to be ignored) and determine his (it could be a she, it is difficult to tell) acceleration in LU/s2. Then we can determine the conversion factor from LU/s2 to…