You are on page 1of 4

Conservation of Energy and Roller Coasters

Melaina Harris

Physics Department
Academy for Math, Engineering and Science
January 29. 2018

Abstract: Starting with a marble and a few foam pipes, we came to create a makeshift roller
coaster. From this, we needed to figure out our minimum starting height in order to successfully
have the marble roll down the pipes and go through the hoop. Unfortunately we were not to
quite able to make that happen without going higher than the minimum height.
1. INTRODUCTION:

Who knew that some foam pipes could contribute to physics? With some few simple
objects I was able to figure a few basic physics concepts such as momentum and friction. My
group and I experimented with different heights and watched as the marble either failed or
succeeded down the roller coaster. After each trial we would reflect on what worked and what
did not, we would switch out numbers on our equation ( mgh = mgh * 1/2mv 2 ) or try different
speeds in order to make our coaster work.

2. THEORY:
We assumed that if we pushed our marble down at our minimum height that the marble
would go down successfully but after many tries something seemed to be off. The marble only
went down successfully when we went far beyond our minimum height. Adjusting our h1 did
nothing unless the number was dramatic.

3. EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS:
Before we even dived into the building of the roller coaster, we experimented with the
equation mgh = mgh * 1/2mv 2 and tried to grasp the knowledge we needed to have in order to
perform the experiment. As you already know, we then proceeded the building of the roller
coaster. With a few simple incisions we were ready to perform. We calculated our minimum
height by measuring our radius of the loop and plugging the numbers into our equation. After
many tries with changing the h1 we couldn’t successfully get the marble to go through the hoop
without exceeding our minimum height. We finally had to come to the conclusion that it would
not work unless we broke the rule.
4. RESULTS
5. DISCUSSION
When we came to the conclusion that we couldn’t have the marble go down the roller
coaster without the exceeding the minimum height we started asking the question of, “why”? We
assumed it was because it was not getting enough momentum and that was partly correct.
Another part was the friction the ball was experiencing was not enough to make the full circle.
The combination of a high momentum would give enough friction for the ball to circle
around the roller coaster and without the momentum this was not successful. Our equation
below shows this represented mathematically using the h to show how much momentum the
ball would get.
mgh = mgh * 1/2mv 2
We went plugged in thirty first because that was our calculated radius but our minimum
height we got out did not make the marble go around. As you know, we tried and tried but every
height we got out did not work. This is what made us come to our final conclusion.

6. CONCLUSION
After many guess and check experiments we decided that momentum is the key thing
that makes this experiment work. Real roller coasters are only a successful ride because of the
momentum. Without momentum fueling the friction this whole experiment does not work. The
marble needs enough push to make the full circle and with exact mathematical equations we
could determine exactly what height the marble needed to be dropped from in order to go
around.

7. REFERENCES
Conservation of Energy and Roller Coasters Worksheet

You might also like