Question

Let’s consider an amusement park that has a double Ferris Wheel, which consists of two vertically rotating wheels that are each attached to the end of a bar which also rotates.

• Each of the two wheels is 12 m in diameter and revolves every 50 seconds.

• A rider starts seated at the lowest position and moves counter-clockwise.

Question

Consider the height of a rider who begins the ride in the lowest car.

i) Write a cosine function ?(?) in the form y = -Acos(B(x-C))+D that expresses the height of the rider relative to the center of the wheel at time t seconds after the ride starts.

ii) Suppose a rider starts on the car to the left of the lowest car, how would you modify your function above to allow for this? Test the time of 10 seconds to determine if your function is reasonable.

Answer 1