For this activity, I created two designs that both worked from beginning to end. The ball was even able to make it through both loops on the first design. I created the double hills at the beginning to gain a good amount of speed.
For this activity I had to design a roller coaster that would be safe and fun according to the choices available. It took many tries, but I got it after thinking through on how it could work.
At the start of a roller coaster, potential energy builds up, gravity then takes over. After this happens, kinetic energy sets off during the ride. I also noticed that there is much more speed gained after coming down from a loop or from a downward ramp.The gravitational force also got lower as the ride went higher.
Discovery Education Video
All roller coasters use physics to work. The starting point uses a mechanism to pull up the cart, and the rest of the roller coaster uses kinetic energy to move to the cart throughout. Most roller coasters do not even use engines or motors to move the coaster at all.
TLC How Roller Coasters Work
As shown at the beginning of the flash video, the coaster has the most potential energy at the first hill. This gives it a lot of energy to move downwards at a fast speed. At the next point, the energy is used and kinetic energy is increased, as the coaster is in motion. At the next hill, it again builds potential energy, then a shift between potential energy and kinetic energy continues throughout the end of the roller coaster.
For level one, it was actually simple, but it did take some time to figure out the correct points. I made the first point go downwards to give the car more speed, because as it goes down further, it'll have more speed when coming up. The speed that it gained from the first slope, allowed it to move past the first hill and reach the end. The slope was made just low enough so it wouldn't hurt the passenger.
On level two, it was pretty much the same as level one, except this time there was an extra point. This time, I used two downward slopes to gain speed when it was decreased by going upwards. This allowed the car to pass through every point. At the end, I added more of a straight edge so that the car could wouldn't stop from going to far up or have an accident by going downwards.
Level 3 took me a couple of runs to adjust the roller coaster. Many times I would run into a point where I would have good momentum and speed, but the passenger would be injured in the process. I had to make the gaps just low enough to get speed and make sure the passenger would be safe from harm.
Finally, level 4 was not too much of a hassle to finish. It wasn't as hard as the previous levels, as it was much easier to build speed with the longer length of the roller coaster. I simply used a few gaps and started with a downward slide at the beginning to gain a good amount of speed to finish. It was also easy to keep the passenger safe.
