Roller Coaster Physics by

Roller Coaster Physics Vocabulary

tinyhippo1456 — 2013-03-18 16:22:57 UTC

Acceleration: Objects that are changing their speed or their direction are said to be accelerating. The rate at which the speed or direction changes is referred to as acceleration. Some amusement park rides (such as roller coasters) are characterized by rapid changes in speed and or direction. These rides have large accelerations. Rides such as the carousel result in small accelerations; the speed and direction of the riders change gradually.

Centripetal Force: Motion along a curve or through a circle is always caused by a centripetal force. This is a force that pushes an object in an inward direction. The moon orbits the earth in a circular motion because a force of gravity pulls on the moon in an inward direction toward the center of its orbit. In a roller coaster loop, riders are pushed inwards toward the center of the loop by forces resulting from the car seat (at the loop's bottom) and by gravity (at the loop's top).

Centrifugal Force: the apparent outward force that draws a rotating body away from the center of rotation. It is caused by the inertia of the body as the body's path is continually redirected. InNewtonian mechanics, the term centrifugal force is used to refer to one of two distinct concepts: an inertial force observed in a non-inertial reference frame, and a reaction force corresponding to a centripetal force.

G: A g is a unit of acceleration equal to the acceleration caused by gravity. Gravity causes free-falling objects on the Earth to change their speeds at rates of about 10 m/s each second. That would be equivalent to a change in speed of 32 ft/s in each consecutive second. If an object is said to experience 3 g's of acceleration, then the object is changing its speed at a rate of about 30 m/s every second.

Momentum: Momentum pertains to the quantity of motion that an object possesses. Any mass that is in motion has momentum. In fact, momentum depends upon mass and velocity, or in other words, the amount of "stuff" that is moving and how fast the "stuff" is moving. A train of roller coaster cars moving at a high speed has a lot of momentum. A tennis ball moving at a high speed has less momentum. And the building you are in, despite its large mass, has no momentum since it is at rest.

Weightlessness:

Roller Coaster Physics Vocabulary Continued

tinyhippo1456 — 2013-03-19 16:43:32 UTC

Potential Energy: Potential energy exists whenever an object which has mass has a position within a force field. The most everyday example of this is the position of objects in the earth's gravitational field.

Kinetic Energy: Energy a body has because it is in motion. It is equal to one half the product of the mass of a body and the square of its velocity.

How do KE &PE have to do with roller coasters?

tinyhippo1456 — 2013-03-19 16:53:42 UTC

KE and PE have to do with roller coasters because you have to have potential energy in the roller coaster in order for it to make it to the top and then while its going down the potential energy is turning into kinetic energy that brings it downward

History behind roller coasters

tinyhippo1456 — 2013-03-19 17:20:33 UTC

Some of the history behind roller coasters are that the idea originated in Russia where they had ice slides with wooden supports underneath them so they didn't fall and break.

Held Records:

Fastest: Kingda Ka which goes

Longest: Steel Dragon 2000 which measures 8,133 feet (2,479 m) in length.

Slowest:

Shortest:

Marble Roller Coaster

tinyhippo1456 — 2013-03-20 21:10:40 UTC