Teacher resources and professional development across the curriculum
Teacher professional development and classroom resources across the curriculum
Design a Roller Coaster
Try your hand at designing your own roller coaster. You will be building a conceptual coaster using the physics concepts that are used to design real coasters. You won't need to compute any formulas.
You will decide the following - the height of the first hill, the shape of the first hill, the exit path, the height of the second hill, and the loop.
When you're done, your coaster will need to pass an inspection for both safety and fun.
Here we go!
First you need to determine the height of the first hill. Start building your coaster by clicking on the "Begin" button.
Note: We'll assume that your coaster is a single-car coaster running on a frictionless track. It has a mass of 800 kg (1760 lbs). The acceleration due to gravity is 32 ft/s/s.
"Amusement Park Physics" is inspired by programs from The Mechanical Universe...and Beyond.