My class did a project where we had to create a roller coaster.  The purpose of this project was to learn about how forces and Newtons Laws of Motion are used in a roller coaster.  Newton's first law states that an object at rest stays at rest unless acted on by an outside force and that an object in motion stays in motion unless being acted on by an outside force.  His second law says that the acceleration of an object depends on the mass of an object and the size of the force applied.  his third law says that when a force is applied to an object the object releases an equal force in the opposite direction.  We used these laws to help us create our roller coaster.

There were four people in each group, so there were four roles.  Each person had a role and they had to write fifteen sentences about that role.  The first role was the historian.  The historian looked up the history of roller coasters.  The second was the design engineer. The design engineer decided what to make the roller coaster out of and why.  The third role was the lawyer.  The lawyer found out the law suits of some states and made sure that the roller coaster is safe.  The last role is the physicist, which was my role.  I found out that a roller coaster has no engine and is driven by kinetic and potential energy.  I found out that how Newton's laws of motion affect a roller coaster.  And I found out that a roller coaster brakes/stops when the force of friction decreases kinetic energy or it runs out of momentum.  They also stop when the brakes push on the brake pads.  I found out that  gravity and inertia keep you in your seat/keep you from fallig out.

This is a picture of my roller coaster success.  My roller coaster worked because the hills gave the cars enough energy to go through the loops. I created this roller coaster on a stimulator.    Click here to go to the site I used and make your own roller coaster!

This is a picture of my roller coaster that I designed that failed.  My roller coaster failed because I did not have enough energy from the hills to get through the loops.

My group chose my roller coaster to be our group's roller coaster.  We drew it on paper and named it Scream X.  In this project I learned a lot about roller coasters, how they are built, and how forces and Newton's Laws of Motion affect them.