How Does a Roller Coaster Work?

1
How Does a Roller Coaster Work?

• What you may not realize as you're cruising down
  the track at 60 miles an hour is that the coaster
  has no engine. The car is pulled to the top of
  the first hill at the beginning of the ride, but
  after that the coaster must complete the ride on
  its own. You aren't being propelled around the
  track by a motor or pulled by a hitch.
• The conversion of potential energy to kinetic
  energy is what drives the roller coaster, and all
  of the kinetic energy you need for the ride is
  present once the coaster descends the first
  hill..

2
Where Does the Energy Go?

• Friction- a force that opposes motion between two
  surfaces that are touching.
• Work must be done on the roller coaster to
  overcome the friction.
• The energy to do this work comes from the
  original potential energy that the cars have on
  the first hill.
• When energy is used to overcome friction, some of
  the energy is converted into thermal energy on
  the way down the first hill, and then some of
  their kinetic energy is converted into thermal
  energy on the way up the second hill (smaller
  than the first).

3
So energy isnt lost at all- it just undergoes a
conversion!
4
The Law

• No situation has been found where energy is not
  conserved.
• The Law of conservation of energy states that
  energy can be neither created nor destroyed.
• Energy can be changed from one form to another,
  but all the different forms of energy in a system
  always add up to the same total amount of energy.

5
Energy and roller coasters

• Check this out!
• http//www.teachersdomain.org/resource/hew06.sci.p
  hys.maf.rollercoaster
• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vwdlKd-qRxUg
• Discussion
• What causes friction on a roller coaster?
• Where is the potential energy the greatest on the
  roller coaster? Why?