THE EJECTION SEAT

 

 

 

Can you imagine being thrown into the air? What amazing fun! Only less than a decade old and amusement parks have made it possible provide a unique adventurous ride to satisfy the adrenalin rushes of humans that like wild and daring rides. It is called the Ejection Seat. In the developing stages of the Ejection Seat construction the ambition to be catapulted into the air from a single anchor point was increased by amusement ride seekers. They had dreamt of people being flung into the air by huge bungee cords connected to a one anchor point. This idea was outlawed in many states, because of the complications due to possible entanglement and or people being directed towards the pavement. This is commonly known as "reverse bungee".

This problem of effectively propelling humans into the air and safely coming down would be in question for a long period of time. It wasn't until engineers produced a design of two twin tower anchor points that met the safety codes of the Committee on Amusement Rides and Devices. Riders would be able to safely propelled into the sky and not risk the danger of hitting the top of a one anchor point or be entangled in bungee cords.

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The diagram above describe the the properties working against people within the Ejection Seat capsule. The factors that that make up the motion of the people in the capsule are weight, normal force, and air friction. The weight of the riders will always remain the same. This cannot be changed.

The normal force and air friction changes as the people are propelled into the air. As they are waiting to be released into the sky the normal force in substantially bigger than the factor of their weight. It remains large until there is some slack in the rope due to the capsule in mid flight. As the capsule reaches its tallest height the people inside of it experience a normal force of zero. Immediately the normal force around the riders begins to grow as the capsule travels back closer to earth.

Air friction is experienced by the riders too. As the capsule is released the riders experience a huge rush into the sky! The faster they begin to climb the smaller the air friction becomes. As the the riders reach the highest possible height of the climb they experience a air friction force of zero similar to the normal force acting on them. Upon descent the air friction continues to grow again and the are slowed down to the compacting of atom particles.

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