Lift Hill

The lift hill is the first thing encountered on most roller coasters. When a car begins its course, it has very little kinetic and potential energy and must be given enough to complete the circuit. The method of adding energy to the car is the lift hill, in which a chain mechanism pulls the car to the highest point on the track, which is necessarily the top of the first hill. For the simulation created, it is assumed the car is pulled up the lift hill at a constant velocity, which is specified by the designer. While in reality the speed may vary somewhat along the length of the hill, this simplification was felt to be sufficient for the purposes of this research.