25 replies to this topic

[the_burrito_master]

just for fun.

or

Are you building knex coasters for experience for your carer building/planning coasters.

I'm just for fun.

[PlanetSaturn56]

A little bit of both. For fun if I'm bored. But for a career as an engineer...if I pass math!

-PS56:king

[CP-ephY]

I definitely am aiming to be a coaster designer, but I don't see how k'nex builds the experience. It's not as if it's something you'd put on a professional resume.

[the_burrito_master]

I definitely am aiming to be a coaster designer, but I don't see how k'nex builds the experience. It's not as if it's something you'd put on a professional resume.

well I mean like getting experience with the names and shapes of the coaster elements ,and how to use them.

[Cardsandcoasters]

Just for fun, but I'd like to be a coaster designer when I am older.
-CAC

[the_burrito_master]

Just for fun, but I'd like to be a coaster designer when I am older.
-CAC

Yeah it would be fun to be a coaster designer but it is a lot of work.

[Jogumpie]

I definitely am aiming to be a coaster designer, but I don't see how k'nex builds the experience. It's not as if it's something you'd put on a professional resume.

Nothing really to add to this.

You don't have to build to get to know the elements' names. So Burrito, that's not a good argument to build.

[RCmaniac31]

yeah knex cant really teach you anything for the future.
it does get you to design and use you imagination but thats pretty much it.
otherwise ssc is actually where you guys(burrito) are getting the info


RC

[the_burrito_master]

Nothing really to add to this.

You don't have to build to get to know the elements' names. So Burrito, that's not a good argument to build.

I wasn't I was giving him the reason why I posted this. It seams that this was a stupid question to ask so if you want to close/delete this topic by all means go ahead.

[Chubs33]

I think its a good topic...

Building knex definently doesnt hurt your knowledge of roller coasters, if anything it does give you more of an understanding of the elements.

[Tyrant]

Playing with knex did nothing to help my career as a roller coaster designer. What it did do was help my career as an engineer, which is what a roller coaster designer does. It helps hone problem solving skills, working with limited funds (limited parts), coming up with creative solutions to tricky problems, and learning how to design for assembly (in a way). Ask almost any engineer, as a kid they played with Legos, Erector Sets, and Knex almost religiously.

Is knex something I put on my resume? Actually, yea, I talked a lot about the LSM project I had going, and the coaster car redesign project, as well as the various other little things I made for the knex platform (drill launch, etc.) and my employer was pretty impressed with it I think. But it isn't just knex that helps with engineering, tear down a beater car, build it back up. Join a Robotics team at your high school, or a Lego FIRST team at your middle school if you have one. There are lots of other extra-curricular things that are just as fun as working with knex.

P.S. knowing the names of elements and how to build them doesn't help at all in roller coaster engineering. By the time you get to the point of actually doing coaster design, its all in the language of 3d Kinematics and space curves, 2nd and 3rd order continuity, bezier curves, etc. etc.

-Tyrant

[Britfag]

I definitely am aiming to be a coaster designer, but I don't see how k'nex builds the experience. It's not as if it's something you'd put on a professional resume.

I Agree,
I'm good in every aspect that makes a coaster designer,
but I'm not sure how doing this can really point you toward a Career in it,
theres such a difference,
K'nex often needs more supporting than Metal, Metal is rather Rigid itself,
and if you supported a real coaster like we do K'nex ones,
It'd either be a woodie, or stupidly expensive.

Id love to be a coaster designer..

[eliavlevy]

I am planning to be a coaster designer, mainly because after I finish next year (Age 15) 5 units of math and right after that before the army finish a first degree in engineering.

[AvalancheX]

I use K'nex for fun. It didn't really teach me anything about how real coasters work though. I knew that stuff long before I got into K'nex again.

Tyrant, very interesting post. Good to know that spending hours on the floor snapping track pieces together actually has some merit.

[the_burrito_master]

I think its a good topic...

Building knex definently doesnt hurt your knowledge of roller coasters, if anything it does give you more of an understanding of the elements.

thats how I see it.

[the_burrito_master]

Playing with knex did nothing to help my career as a roller coaster designer. What it did do was help my career as an engineer, which is what a roller coaster designer does. It helps hone problem solving skills, working with limited funds (limited parts), coming up with creative solutions to tricky problems, and learning how to design for assembly (in a way). Ask almost any engineer, as a kid they played with Legos, Erector Sets, and Knex almost religiously.

Is knex something I put on my resume? Actually, yea, I talked a lot about the LSM project I had going, and the coaster car redesign project, as well as the various other little things I made for the knex platform (drill launch, etc.) and my employer was pretty impressed with it I think. But it isn't just knex that helps with engineering, tear down a beater car, build it back up. Join a Robotics team at your high school, or a Lego FIRST team at your middle school if you have one. There are lots of other extra-curricular things that are just as fun as working with knex.

P.S. knowing the names of elements and how to build them doesn't help at all in roller coaster engineering. By the time you get to the point of actually doing coaster design, its all in the language of 3d Kinematics and space curves, 2nd and 3rd order continuity, bezier curves, etc. etc.

-Tyrant

yeah thats all very true. I don't go to a public school (I'm home schooled)so I cant get in to those groups and I don't entirely want to be a coaster designer.

I'm thinking about being a 3d artist unfortuneatly(sp?) I'm not that good at it.

I'm also interested in circuitry/electrical engineering.

[Jogumpie]

I'm also interested in circuitry/electrical engineering.

Electrical engineering can be quite hard, trust me. Mainly because it's very abstract; you can't touch currents or voltages.

[NitroRyder33]

Next year I plan on shifting my college major over to Civil Engineering, to help me get my foot in to the door of designing roller coasters.

[Maverix]

i want to be a coaster designer but right now its mostly for fun and to kind of learn how to deal with situations as they come up when desgning a coaster so i say it can help you with some of the problem solving like Tyrant said but nothing to major.

[Jogumpie]

I find engineering and mathematics more helpful when it comes to getting in the roller coaster business.