preview

Rollercoasters Research Paper

Decent Essays

Many people go to amusement parks for fun and for a vacation. Have you ever been to an amusement park, while waiting in line just wonder how rollercoasters work along with wonder what the history behind them is? Well there is a lot of history behind the rollercoasters, along with a lot of science behind how all the rollercoasters work. In this essay you will learn the history and the mechanics of Rollercoasters. The concept of a rollercoaster came about in Russia sometime during the 1400’s.The rollercoaster that the Russians created was actually just a sled riding down an icy hill which was also known as an ice slide. The ice slide had a sled that could only hold two people. The people on the sleds rode down a long icy ramp which was all …show more content…

Rollercoasters do not have engines to move all of the carts on the tracks. The ride of the rollercoasters use gravity and momentum to help move the carts on the tracks. This is crazy because you would think that rollercoasters use an engine or motor to be pushed up the giant hills. It makes a lot of sense that they use gravity because when the cart moves down the hill it picks up even more speed than a motor can make the cart go. Rollercoasters also use some chain. A chain is used to connect to the bottom of the carts to help carry the cart up the hills. The reason they have to use chains is because the rollercoasters do not have any engines or motors to help move the cart so the chains are used instead. The way the train moves up the hills is by the chains connecting to the bottom of the carts. Once the carts are pulled all the way to the top of the hill then the chains let go of the carts. When this happens it gives the rollercoaster a lot of momentum and energy to do some loops turns and finish the entire track. When the chains let go the coaster depends on gravity till it reaches the bottom of the hill. Then along the whole track there is a brake system which is used in an emergency. The brakes are built into the tracks not the train, cart, itself. There are another series of brakes at the end of the track so it can come to a nice easy stop. The braking system that they use is a series of clamps which are at the end and random points in the track. The way that the clamps stop the cart is when the clamps close on the wheels of the

Get Access