Marble Roller Coaster Background Research

If a curved track is not banked the marble may fly off of the edge of the track.

Marble roller coaster background research. It must have at least 2 hills including the starting point one loop cannot have a top and must be free standing. If it s too flexible then it s hard for the loop to keep its shape. Potential energy is gathered by an object as it moves upwards or away from the earth. Your roller coaster cannot be prefabricated or from a kit.

Research design and build a roller coaster. Building a simple marble run or tube based coaster is only the beginning. Background and bibliography the purpose of the project is to find the lowest possible height for the hill so all of the marbles can complete the loop. Your roller coaster will transport a marble that you supply you can use any model or size marble.

If you followed the guidelines discussed in the background section you should have been able to design a working roller coaster. Gravitational potential energy is the energy an object has stored because of. In roller coaster construction this is called track banking. In this lesson students will prepare to construct a marble roller coaster by completing background research on roller coasters.

Plan your 60 minute lesson in science with helpful tips from kara nelson. Roller coasters and marble runs offer an engaging platform for invention engineering and physics based investigation. Marble roller coasters are science based interactive toys that work on the principles of physics particularly changing potential energy into kinetic energy. This is a good opportunity to explain the negative effects of momentum.

A marble travelling forward will continue moving in that direction because of it s momentum. You ll build a roller coaster track for marbles using foam pipe insulation and masking tape and see how much of an initial drop is required to get the marble to loop the loop it s a great way to learn about how stored energy potential energy is converted into the energy of motion kinetic energy. The marble rolls because it has gravitational potential energy. They re miniature versions of the types of roller coasters you d find at amusement parks and they include twists turns and loops.

Background roller coasters rely on two types of energy to operate. The foam pipe insulation needs to be the stiff kind. Because some energy is always lost to friction your initial hill.