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The Physics Of Rollercoaster Rides

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A rollercoaster is one of the “ must play” rides a one thinks of when he goes to an amusement park. A rollercoaster ride is an experience filled with thrill and excitement. It also involves a wealth of physics. Part of it is the physics of Newton's laws, and work and energy. Newton’s first law states that an object at rest stays at rest unless acted on by another force and an object moving at a constant speed continues to move at a constant speed unless acted on by another force. Newton’s second law states that an object will accelerate in the same direction of the net force of the object, and Newton’s third law is that to every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. The carts are pulled up to the top of the first hill using a motor …show more content…

Now that the cart is on top of the first hill, gravity comes in action, when the cart is moving downhill, it speeds up at a rate of 9.8 meters per second squared. The potential energy gets converted to kinetic energy at this point; the cart is being pulled down by gravity that means it’s falling. When the cart is at the bottom of the first hill, all the potential energy has been converted to kinetic energy then, its time for some loops and other small hills, during loops (clothoid loops), centripetal acceleration occurs. When a rollercoaster rider goes through a loop, they undergo acceleration due to change of speed and change of direction, there is a constant change in direction while going around the loop, as the rider climbs upward during the loop, they begin to slow down as energy principles state, an increase in height results in change of kinetic energy to potential energy, and conversely a decrease in height results in change of potential energy to kinetic energy. Therefore the rider experiences maximum speed at the bottom of the loop (both at the beginning and at the end) and minimum speed at the top of the loop. By the end of the ride, some of the energy is wasted in different forms of forces and energies such as air resistance, friction, heat and sound energies, which leads to the cart slowing

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