Tag linerider

Physics of Linerider IV: Friction?

rhettallain 1 Comment

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://blog.dotphys.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/page-6-1.jpg)

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://blog.dotphys.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/page-6-2.jpg)

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 traveling at a constant speed of 0.71 m/s. If friction were present, the rider would slow down. If you do not believe me (and why should you?) try creating your own line rider track with a long horizontal section. The rider will not stop, but continue on at a constant speed.

Ok, so no friction on the horizontal line. This makes a little bit of gaming sense. Who would want a rider to stop in the middle of the track and be stuck? That wouldn’t be fun. But, is there friction on non-horizontal portions? To test this, I will use the work-energy principle.

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Physics of Linerider III: Air Resistance

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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://blog.dotphys.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/linerider-air-1.jpg)

(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://blog.dotphys.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/linerider-falling.jpg)

In this situation, the rider falls about 100 meters. A quadratic line is fit to the data and an acceleration is obtained that is very similar to the previous case (where air resistance was assumed to be negligible). If there had been air resistance, this graph would have become more linear as the rider fell. Perhaps 100 meters is not far enough to fall, but in real life this should be far enough to detect the presence of an air resistance force. Or does it? Lets make a simple check.

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Physics of Linerider Part II: Scale

rhettallain 1 Comment

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://blog.dotphys.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/line-rider.jpg)

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 m/s2.

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