Contact: Maridith Geuder
With names like "Millennium Force" and "Mean Streak," roller coasters try to convey a sense of the speed, height and high-banked turns that make them popular with thrill-seekers.
A senior Mississippi State University mathematics major recently rode research on roller coaster curves to a share of top honors in regional competition sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America.
Shawn P. Cooke of Memphis, Tenn. [4064 Long Creek Rd., 38125], tied for first place in a student challenge that included students from Mississippi and Louisiana. Titled "Designing Roller Coasters," his research project was among some 20 chosen for presentation to MAA members attending an annual meeting in Lafayette, La.
"Shawn took a curve in space and investigated what it would take to keep the roller coaster on a curve, with just gravity and no friction acting upon it," said associate professor Vivien Miller, Cooke's project supervisor. "The result is a formula that explains the banking."
Also placing among the top competitors is Clay Hester, a senior from Gulfport whose research into analytic cartography earned third place honors.
A Christopher R. Stark Scholar in MSU's mathematics and statistics department, Hester used the computer algebra system Mathematica to demonstrate how typical United States maps often are misleading about the relative size of far-apart states.
Directed by associate professor Len Miller, Hester used techniques from linear algebra, vector analysis, differential geometry, differential equations, and programming. His research was aided by an undergraduate award provided by the Tupelo-based Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal.