Using our knowledge of physics, we are in the process of creating a working roller coaster that can carry a marble to the bottom without it falling off. The coaster must have at least one loop and at least one turn.
We needed to construct a working ride, but once it was finished, we needed to calculate different points, like the highest and lowest potential and kinetic energy and two forces that could potentially slow the marble down as it goes along the track.
Potential energy is energy that is not being used. It has the potential to become kinetic. Our roller coaster starts with a drop, so the potential energy is highest at the very top of the ride, which, on ours, is the highest point. This is because the marble hasn’t started moving yet, so it’s waiting to drop. The potential energy is the very lowest at the end of the ride, because the marble is moving quickly and has to be stopped at the end.
Kinetic energy is energy that comes from movement. The highest point of kinetic energy is at the end of the roller coaster, which is the lowest point of the ride. This is because the marble has been moving quickly the whole ride. Because of this, the place of lowest kinetic energy is at the very beginning of the ride, at the top of the drop. Kinetic energy comes from moving objects, and the marble isn’t moving when it’s up there.
Forces that can slow the marble down on the ride are friction and gravity. The marble must not fly off the end of the coaster; we have to slow it down or stop it somehow. Friction is the force that happens when two things rub past each other. When you rub your hands together on a cold day, that’s an example of friction. In this case, we used little pieces of tape and stuck them on the sides of the track. When the marble moved over them, the tape slowed it down. We placed the end of the track at the bottom of a hill, so the marble slows down when it rolls over the hill.
S&EP: Models
Before we began to construct our roller coaster, we had to see how we wanted to design it. We had a base, but the entire coaster had to fit on the base, so we made a paper model of the ride to see how we had to make the turns so that it would fit on the board. Our original idea was the have a one-meter drop with a loop, and then a turn going into a hill, finishing with another loop. We needed to incorporate cost into this, because we needed to ‘buy’ our supplies and we had a budget of $850.00. We didn’t have enough money or space on the board for that amount of track, so we made the drop, loop, turn, hill and another hill. At the bottom of the last hill, we turned the trak slightly to slow the marble down. We needed to use the paper model to see how well the ride would fit on the base.
XCC: Structure and Function
While constructing our ride, we needed to keep in mind the structure and function of our ride. When we tested the marble this morning, it kept falling off the track. We realized that the loop, which had been in perfect condition the day before, was slightly crooked. When we repaired it, the marble went down easily without falling off. The way the track was built affected the marble’s path. While building our final turn, the marble wouldn’t stay on the track because the track was slanted too far. We needed to make sure that the structure of the roller coaster was strong enough and in good condition, because the function of it wouldn’t work otherwise.
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