Roller Coaster Build

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Summary: Have you ever built a roller coaster? Chances are no but most of us have made our own race tracks or maybe roller coaster out of materials we have at home. Now a childhood pass time is connected to science and more specifically the science of motion. Roller Coaster are all powered by motion. It would be no fun it the carts never moved. What makes things move? Well lets start with some types of energy. Kinetic Energy is the energy of motion. You would think a roller coaster only needs Kinetic Energy but that is not the cause. Energy has to come from somewhere which is were we get Potential Energy. So when your cart is hanging  right over a great slope your cart has a lot of potential for energy if it is pushed forward. Potential Energy is converted into Kinetic Energy letting you have fun on a roller coaster.

S&EP: Using Models:
Since I can't make a life size rollercoaster to ride around in lets scale it down. What do you need to make a small roller coaster? Well you could use simple materials such a a marble as your cart, tubing, tape, and something like dowels and cardboard to help secure it. Now the tubing can't just be placed in any form if you have your track flat on the ground and then expect your marble to get over a giant hill it won't work. But why? Well for something to have any energy it must either have Kinetic Energy or Potential Energy. If the marble is just sitting on the track with no force being applied to it it will not move. This is due to Newtons law. An object in motion will stay in motion. An object not in motion will not move. You see to make your track work you need to create a situation where you keep speed until you want the marble to stop.

XCC: Structure and Function:
The first step to making your mini coaster work is by looking at examples of what has already been done. Roller coaster usually start of a position really high. This is to gain that Potential Energy that is all important. Then once you release your marble you will see if you created a hill it will speed down it. Now how do we continue this track of speed. This is where all the twist and turn come in. If you want the marble to keep its movement you can make something like a hill. It will go a bit slower on the way up but on the way up the amount of energy it takes to go us will be put back into going back down. You could use this new energy to make a loop or sharp turn. Slowly the marble will come to a stop once it has lost all the Kinetic Energy in it. This is ok all rides need to end at some point but depending on the structure of your build and how you lay it out and make sure you keep that kinetic energy going you can keep your coaster moving for a while