"So here are the basic components of building a roller coaster." Wu said, gesturing his hands towards a miniature model that Lera helped create with him, "On the most basic level, we have the track and the chariots. However, we will need to further divide the track into the various components, starting with the loading area..."
Based on the countless high school physics lessons and hours in the parks back on Earth, Wu was able to contemplate and list down the things that they will need to recreate the rides that awed the audiences and thrilled the passengers.
There’s the loading area, then a flat patch where speed is built up through constant acceleration, or through being moved up to a place of higher height. Then, there were the main attractions, the loops and spins, where the energy built up is lost before a final patch where the speed decreases further and brakes before returning to the loading area once more.
After going through the list with the rest of the Casters in the college, Wu and Lera then spearheaded the location scouting as Lily took them along her own Chariot as the outlines of the various structure Casts from the colleges are all starting to be set up right around the same time.
"Illiol is one of the biggest colleges around here, so whatever space and materials you need, we should be able to get." Lily said, pointing her hands towards the sky above them, "The Cultural Festival is going to be a floating exhibition with both vertical and horizontal layers."
"And through all of those exhibitions, our roller coaster will surge through all of them like a rising dragon..." Wu said, squinting his eye and visualizing the constructions, "I will leave the negotiating spaces for the structure Casts to you."
"Oh, it will just be a simple ask." Lily smiled, taking Wu higher up in the air, "Now, show me what you can do."
Starting with the massive pillars that are the foundations of all Structure Casts, the group of Casters combined their individual experiences and aligned the individual pillars made from the Wave hardened around tree trunks with the various college structures that are already floating in the air to begin with. Then, by creating hinge joints at the foundation, they can then adjust the angle from the pillars to the track based on how the final parts turned out.
Lera had never experienced creating proper structure Casts before, thus she enjoyed the learning experience with a few of the third years around as they swiftly drew on the Wave from the environment before reinforcing them within the Casts, pumping it up like a balloon and holding it in place.
"Now, do you know how wide the pillars need to be to hold a certain weight?" Wu asked, sitting cross-legged from the project lead for pillar construction, where the more experienced structure Casters are, "Like...do you have a safety margin? Or a breaking stress?"
"Uh...When we need to hold weight, we just...keep trying..." The lead scratched his head, "Usually, we just put a few more pillars just in case."
Huh. Honestly, Wu shouldn't really be that surprised.
On earth, engineers operate within the bounds of mechanical limits which are mostly known to be within certain ranges. Then, each of the individual fields of engineering apply its own safety factors. With something as dynamic as roller coasters, the safety factor are going to be quite a bit higher than more static structures.
"Then, your next step would be to find out the relationship between the breaking stress of your pillars and the load from the momentum of the chariot when it is loaded with people, here’s the equation for centrepetal acceleration if you need it..." Wu said, standing up and calling the project lead for track construction, who had been looking into how the tracks can be built to incorporate the golden chariots.
The test is simple. The project lead for track construction will build a test track that's a vertically aligned loop, where the Golden chariots will be running repeated loop within it, and a model of the pillar will then be built around the track, though it is immediately obvious that the bottom pillar will be the one that's experiencing the most amount of mechanical stress.
When the model structure was built in the middle of Illiol college, dozens of chariots from other colleges are parked in the air space nearby as the students passing by watched on with interest.
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Due to the relationship between gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy, the given diameter of the loop is then governed by the maximum speed reached by the Chariots. This is where the experiments will start, though it is worth noting that the Chariot's maximum speed is alsodefined by the Chariot Cast itself, and they could obviously boost its speed beyond that with external accelerators.
"Alright! Test 1! Go!" Wu said, swinging his arms as the chariots loaded with heavy bricks to simulate passengers rocked up, and it accelerated to its top speed before running into the loop. The structure immediately started shaking as the chariot barely made it up the half-way point to the loop before a crack formed over the track itself.
Thankfully, the chariots rammed into Lera's Bubble bubble crash area before the model broke apart.
"Shit!" The project leads both cursed at their underestimation of the momentum of the chariots. However, now they at least had something to work with.
"Hahaha...what a stupid idea..." The other students laughed as they drove their chariots away. Only a madman drives the chariots at its maximum speed, and to imagine anyone going far beyond that? It's even an outlandish idea within the Infinite Academy.
"Illiol really is getting desperate..."
"Hey." Wu said, clapping his hands together and drawing the attention of the two project leads who clearly heard the comments from the onlookers, "You know what you have to do now, do you?"
They both turned and nodded their head firmly, resolution in their eyes and tension in their fists. Then, they went to work as Wu continued finalizing on the details of the track itself. The two project lead's current focus is on the micro-level, where they are designing the detailed structure for both the track and the pillars, while Wu is responsible for the macro-level design.
"So...what would you like the theme of this to be?" Wu asked as Lily brought in lunch from the dining hall to the common room.
"What the Cultural festival had always been about. Bringing people together." Lily said, smiling and sitting down next to him.
"Then, let's keep it simple. Two loops, a bridge in between them." Wu said, swirling his fingers around, "Two continents, one connection. The academy."
"Sounds good to me."
On day 2, the project leads have finalized on a detailed design for the tracks and pillars, and they repeated the same test as day 1. This time, the chariots successfully made the first loop, and cheers echoed all throughout the college. The voices of doubters became a lot quieter coincidentally, but they all knew that this is only the beginning.
On day 3, Wu unveiled the design of the Roller Coaster, the aptly named "Two Continents One World" roller coaster, or TCOW for short. Then, they got to work putting everything together. The two loops will go over and around rows of cultural festival exhibits before the flat part of the track loads the students from right above Illiol college.
The next few days involved the true hard work, where all hands are on deck within Illiol as they conjured up the individual pieces of the track before slowly lifting them up in the air and assembling them together. All will be well so long as the twin loops hold up as they should, and for that, Wu recruited a special tester.
"Ya making what?!" Fatera's eyes were as wide as goose eggs when Wu shoved her into the Chariot’s main seat and wrapped a seatbelt around her waist.
"Don't tell me you are scared." Wu giggled as Fatera rolled her eyes and shook her head. Then, she leaned forward as the Chariot slowly started to pick up more and more speed in the flats before it made a slow turn and charged into the first loop.
"OH SHIIIIIIT!" Fatera shouted, her body becoming pinned into the bottom of the chariot initially before everything started to lighten up as she flew over the first loop. Feeling the rush of the air by her ear, she can't help but let out an echoing laugh as the chariot dashed through the second loop and came all the way around.
As the chariot slowly rolled back towards the group of stunned Illiol students, Fatera jumped out from the chariots and tackled Wu down onto the ground.
"That was crazy!" Fatera shouted straight into Wu's skull before tossing him high up into the air and then catching him like a ball with one hand, "I love ya for calling me first!"
"Of...cough cough...course..." Wu said, holding onto his head before Lera came to his rescue, "Now, you will ride the real thing in a few days."
"NO! Please let me stay and help!" Fatera plead, holding onto Wu's hand as if its her only hope, "My college is doing a pop up shop! It's sooooo boring!"
"Well...we could always use a muscle to move things around." Lily said from behind, and Wu is certainly in no position to disagree.
"Ok. You are only allowed to ride after we finish constructing everything." Wu said as Fatear grinned ear to ear.
Then, she activated her Killa mode, and the roller coaster was completed that afternoon.