Marble Roller Coaster Pipe Insulation

How to build a marble roller coaster.

Marble roller coaster pipe insulation. The pipe insulation roller coaster project is one of the most enjoyable projects i ve ever used in class. 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. You can build a roller coaster from the foam tubes that are often used for pipe insulation. So i wanted to know how much pipe insulation should i give to each team and what materials should be given to give support to the rollercoaster.

It was my second year teaching physics. The goal of this activity is to be resourceful. Design and build a roller coaster for marbles to travel on. The foaming can be taped on the wall using masking tape and moved around to make a roller coaster.

Foam pipe insulation 1 5 inches in diameter at least 6 feet in length or more if you would like to eventually add more features to your roller coaster at least one glass marble or other. There will be extra points for loops and hills. Curl one end of a piece of pipe insulation into a loop roughly 1 foot in diameter. There will be different teams and each team will have to make a roller coaster the team whose marble takes the most time to reach the ground would win.

Make sure tape is not blocking the inside of the channel it s ok to tape have tape on the inside just make sure it is pressed flat and will not block the marble. Cut the foam tubing in half and you have a track for a marble to roll down. This project has a few things that help this work. Enjoy the videos and music you love upload original content and share it all with friends family and the world on youtube.

Marble roller coasters are fun and easy to build. We even had a little roller coaster to use with photo gates. One of them is one of newton s laws of motion that says that an object in motion will stay in motion and an object in rest will stay in rest. Tape the loop to the floor to hold it in place.

Change the height of the first hill.