Many people know the show “Phineas and Ferb,” and how they built one of their most iconic inventions in their backyard: a roller coaster.

While theirs does not defy the laws of gravity, Pascack Hills senior Grace Zak and her brother Daniel Zak, who is a Hills alumnus, built a roller coaster named Whiplash in their backyard.

The siblings initially thought of this idea when Grace was in middle school and Daniel was a sophomore in high school. However, they did not officially start building until the summer of 2020.

“We were both pretty young, and we didn’t know exactly what we were doing,” Grace said.

Daniel added, “I didn’t really have the time or the motivation to do it when I was in high school, but when quarantine hit and I was brought home early for the summer . . . it seemed like a good time.”

In-depth research was required for the pair to accomplish their dream of building this roller coaster. They read various books, watched documentaries, and accessed other sources to prepare them for their project. Most of these resources, however, were about roller coasters that were built with PVC pipes.

Both Zaks mentioned that they applied information they learned from Hills teachers Brendan Field, James Soltmann, and Kevin Killian when making the roller coaster.

For example, they used a pole and a string to measure a radius for a turn, and then applied math that Grace learned from Honors Pre-Calculus to create the actual turn in the roller coaster. They used force equations and energy equations from Fields’s class and asked Soltmann about specifications for the motor.

Daniel, who is currently majoring in architecture at Virginia Tech, used information he learned in his first year of college when he “designed the station building and actually did the architectural drawings for it [his] first year of college.”

In terms of the structure, the roller coaster is primarily made of wood. The siblings precisely measured and laid out the wood over months to create the proper framework and a feasible path for their project.

Wood was a good option for them because of its accessibility, such as getting it from a lumber yard or from a hardware store.

For the cart of the roller coaster, Daniel created a model digitally and then had it professionally welded. The coaster cart consists of a Go-Kart racing seat and a three-point harness.

When asked about what they felt was the most difficult part of building the roller coaster, the siblings discussed two primary challenges.

The first was that their project is not commonly built, and therefore it was difficult to have a baseline to create from.

“We were starting from scratch . . . no one has built a roller coaster similar to this one,” Grace said.

Even though they had extensive research, the Zaks relied on trial and error to figure out how to build and engineer the roller coaster, such as how to properly bend the wood or how to get the cart up the first drop of the roller coaster.

“The way I operate is that I think that anyone can do anything if given enough resources, time, and willpower to continue . . . The most challenging thing was continuing to work on it day after day for like four to eight hours a day for months” Daniel said.

Despite these adversities, the Zak siblings have clear goals for the future of Whiplash.

Their goal is “not to make it perfect” but to instead “make it rideable by the general public and safe.” They also want to add more thematic elements to it, such as having a sign introducing the ride. Both Daniel and Grace hope that the roller coaster lasts for over 20 years.

Daniel and Grace want to post videos of their process of building the roller coaster in the future, and there is already a YouTube video showing them testing their cart. A website is also currently being worked on that will show and document their work for others to see.

The Zaks also had advice for people who potentially want to pursue a project as intense as this.

“Make sure you’re ready for it. This is a wild ride. It is going to be intense when you are doing it for the first time,” Daniel said.

He added, “It is going to take a lot of time . . . but as long as you mentally prepare yourself and you commit to the project . . . it should be a fun ride altogether.”

Grace said that it’s important to “be flexible and realize that it might not go to your original plan.”

“This definitely has gone . . . many different ways than we expected it to, but it all worked out and we’re happy with it,” she said.