Coaster Creator LabRoller Coaster Project: Group Part

Click here to access the Coaster Creator WebsiteObjectives:

1. Use your understanding of energy transfer (potential to kinetic) to design a roller coaster that has enough kinetic energy to complete a full run.

2. Use your understanding of energy loss to design a roller coaster that dissipates enough energy (through friction) to stop safely at the end of its run.

*Note: While working on your coaster design, remember that you need to take a screenshot of your roller coaster car design, your roller coaster track design, and your results (BOTH the energy graph and the total points graph) to use in your Google Slides presentation.

Screenshot on Chromebook: Ctrl + window switcher key Then save to Google Drive.

Screenshot on PC: Ctrl and PrtScn (It will copy it; you will need to paste it into Google Slides)

Screenshot on Mac: Command, Shift, and 3 (It will automatically save on Desktop; you can drag image onto Google Slides)

Steps:

Part One: Choose a design for your roller coaster car, and decide how many cars you want.

This is an important choice. Notice that mass is part of the potential energy equation. The more mass you have, the more energy you put in the system. More energy means you can achieve greater velocity, and with greater velocity, you can get a higher score. But be careful, because it also means your cars will be harder to slow down when it is time to stop the ride. If you don’t transfer enough energy via friction, your cars will crash.

1. What is the name of your roller coaster?

2. How many cars do you have?

What is the total mass of your cars? Fill in the blanks below:

3. PE = ______ x g x [height]

4. KE: ½ _______ x [velocity]

After you finish your design, take a screen shot of your roller coaster car for your Google Slides presentation!

Part 2: Design a track for your roller coaster.

When designing your track, here is an important hint: the height of the first hill is critical. Like the mass of the car, height is part of the equation for potential energy, and will establish the total possible energy in your system.

Like most roller coasters, cars are pulled up the first hill with a motor, but gravity will eventually bring it down. The higher the hill, the further the car has to fall. The higher you take your car, the more energy your car is storing. That is what potential energy is: stored energy. When you look at your equation for potential energy, you will see that height and gravity combine with mass to determine the potential energy of the system.

If you build any hills or loops that are higher than the initial hill, your car won’t have the energy to climb it. The car will get stuck on the track, and you won’t get a score.

Your car goes faster and faster as you plummet down the first hill. Look what happens to your kinetic energy. It was zero at the top of the hill. Now kinetic energy is increasing as potential energy is decreasing. Your car is rapidly transferring stored potential energy into kinetic energy: the energy of motion.

As your car falls down the hill, gravity causes it to accelerate. The longer your car accelerates, the greater the car’s velocity. Now you can really see why that first hill is so important.

The gravity and height in the potential energy equation translate into the velocity of the kinetic energy equation. The higher your hill, the faster your car can go. To continue the excitement, the car is sent up another hill or loop. As the height of this next hill or loop increases, some of the kinetic energy is converted back into potential. Once the car starts back down the hill or loop, the car quickly speeds up. This increase in speed indicates that potential energy is being converted back into kinetic.

Look at the equation for potential energy below:

5. As the mass increases, would you expect the potential energy (PE) to increase or decrease? Explain your answer.

6. As the height increases, would you expect the potential energy to increase or decrease? Explain your answer.

7. Look at the three equations below. Notice that the mass and gravity stay the same in each equation, and the only difference is the height. Which equation will have the greatest potential energy? Use the space below to explain why you made your selection.

8. Look at the roller coaster track below. At which point (1, 2, 3, or 4) do you think potential energy would be the greatest? Explain your answer.

Before you run your roller coaster, click on the second node (these are the black dots) in your roller coaster track. Fill in the numbers you see there. Then start your coaster and fill in the remaining numbers below.

9. PE = ______ x g x ______

10. KE: ½ ______ x ______

After you finish your design, take a screen shot of your roller coaster track for your Google Slides presentation!

Part 3: Run your roller coaster.

Keep an eye on the bar that will start to fill up at the top, and answer the following questions. (Hint: You can rerun your coaster as many times as you would like. When your coaster has finished running, select the “Back” button to go back to the track building screen. If you don’t make any changes, clicking on “Next” will let you rerun the same track.)

11. What is the dominant color of your bar when you are the top of the first hill?

12. What type of energy does this represent?

13. What is your car doing when the bar is primarily green?

14. At what point during this ride is it most desirable to see a lot of orange? What does the orange bar represent?

15. When your coaster reaches the end of its run, highlight the end state of your coaster:

crash success stuck

After you finish running your roller coaster, take a screen shot of the energy graph AND the total points graph for your Google Slides presentation!

16. What do you notice about the relationship between kinetic energy and speed? As speed increases, explain what happens to kinetic energy.

17. What do you notice about the relationship between potential energy and speed? As speed increases, explain what happens to potential energy.

18. Once you have built a successful track, go to your results page. Using Google Drawing, recreate the graph found there (3 points):

Key:Red line to represent potential energyGreen line to represent kinetic energyOrange line to represent thermal energy

19. Explain what your roller coaster is doing at the point where there is no longer any green. How would this graph be different if your roller coaster crashed?

You are now ready to work on your Google Slides presentation to persuade Not-So-Berry Farms Amusement Park to use your design for the next coaster!

Total Energy in System

Time