The Physics Of Roller Coasters
Cecily Santana
The types of energy is a roller coaster
When the roller coaster is moving up or at the very top of it's hill, it has a large amount of potential energy. As it starts rolling down the hill, it begins to build kinetic energy. As the coaster moves up and down and around, its amounts of potential and kinetic energy are changing and becoming larger and smaller depending on its position.
How the energy changes
As the coaster moves up and down and around, its amounts of potential and kinetic energy are changing and becoming larger and smaller depending on its position. Whenever it's at the top of a hill. it has a lot of potential energy, but when it rolls down that hill it has a lot of kinetic energy.
Why energy changes are important
The energy changes are important because if not the roller coaster would not be able to function. If there were no energy changes, the roller coaster would just be moving forward at one speed on a flat surface, never accelerating or having any twists and turns in it.
Compare and contrast
when comparing and contrasting wooden roller coasters and steel roller coasters, wooden roller coasters are not very fast, don't (usually) have flips, don't have steep drops or turns most of the time, and are more shaky. Steel roller coasters usually have flips, steep drops and turns, and are more secure and safer.
Safety of roller coasters
Roller coasters are built very carefully with strong material, and have strong harnesses, and are tested multiple times before being open to the public. Everything on a roller coaster is controlled through computers (speed, brakes, etc), which makes everything a lot safer. Even when the park is off season the roller coasters are still being worked on and tested to ensure that they are always safe.