Marble Roller Coaster And Force

Background roller coasters rely on two types of energy to operate.

Marble roller coaster and force.

Potential energy is gathered by an object as it moves upwards or away from the earth. Identify the two parts. The force of gravity is the mass of my marble times the force of gravity on earth. Layers of learning has hands on experiments in every unit of this family friendly curriculum.

In english this says. A roller coaster moves in the same way a marble would roll down a slanted surface. The foam tubing roller. The marble roller coaster challenge is a physics experiment from unit 1 7 about motion.

When you raise the marble you are working against the force of gravity giving the marble potential energy. That is your body will keep going at the same speed in the same direction unless some other force acts on you to change that speed or direction. Then have everyone gently take apart only their own roller coaster and clump all the used tape into a giant tape ball start of class lecture. Newton s first law of motion states that an object in motion tends to stay in motion.

The marble rolls because it has gravitational potential energy. Build your own marble roller coaster in this project and find out. Allow 2 minutes near end of class for students to try each others coasters. The roller coaster is a great demonstration of the law of conservation of energy.

When you ride a roller coaster all the forces we ve discussed are acting on your body in different ways. Gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy. In an isolated system such as the roller coaster the total energy remains constant.