Circular Motion: Modelling a Ferris wheel

If you are a teacher then please also visit my new site: intermathematics.com for over 2000+ pdf pages of resources for teaching IB maths!

Circular Motion: Modelling a ferris wheel

This is a nice simple example of how the Tracker software can be used to demonstrate the circular motion of a Ferris wheel.  This is sometimes asked in IB maths exams – so it’s nice to get a visual representation of what is happening.

First I took a video from youtube of a Ferris wheel, loaded it into Tracker, and then used the program to track the position of a single carriage as it moved around the circle.  I then used Tracker’s graphing capabilities to plot the height of the carriage (y) against time (t).  This produces the following graph:

As we can see this is a pretty good fit for a sine curve. So let’s use the regression tool to find what curve fits this:

The pink curve with the equation:

y = -116.1sin(0.6718t+2.19)

fits reasonably well.  If we had the original dimensions of the wheel we could scale this so the y scale represented the metres off the ground of the carriage.

There we go!  Short and simple, but a nice starting point for an investigation on circular motion.

Essential Resources for IB Teachers

1) Intermathematics.com

If you are a teacher then please also visit my new site.  This has been designed specifically for teachers of mathematics at international schools.  The content now includes over 2000 pages of pdf content for the entire SL and HL Analysis syllabus and also the SL Applications syllabus.  Some of the content includes:

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2. Original Paper 3 investigations (with full worked solutions) to develop investigative techniques and support both the exploration and the Paper 3 examination.
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Essential Resources for both IB teachers and IB students

1) Exploration Guides and Paper 3 Resources

I’ve put together a 168 page Super Exploration Guide to talk students and teachers through all aspects of producing an excellent coursework submission.  Students always make the same mistakes when doing their coursework – get the inside track from an IB moderator!  I have also made Paper 3 packs for HL Analysis and also Applications students to help prepare for their Paper 3 exams.  The Exploration Guides can be downloaded here and the Paper 3 Questions can be downloaded here.