Investigating the affects of a chosen factor on the speed of a Roller Coaster.

Authors Avatar

Physics Coursework 2003                Tasneem Sadiq 10A

INVESTIGATING THE AFFECTS OF A CHOSEN FACTOR ON THE SPEED OF A ROLLER COASTER

AIM

The aim of this investigation is to find out how one chosen factor affects the speed of a roller coaster car at the bottom of a slope.  In the investigation, a marble is used to represent a car.

FACTORS

VERTICAL HEIGHT OF SLOPE (THE HIGHER, THE FASTER)

GRADIENT OF THE SLOPE       (THE STEEPER, THE FASTER)

AIR RESISTANCE          (THE MORE THERE IS, THE SLOWER)

FRICTION                          (THE MORE THERE IS, THE SLOWER)

VARIABLES
I have chosen to investigate the vertical height of the roller coaster slope.  As the car (marble) rolls down the slope, it can be timed, and the length of the slope can be used to calculate the speed of the car (marble).

PREDICTION

I predict that as the vertical height increases, so will the speed2 of the car (marble).  Therefore, the higher the roller coaster slope is, the faster the car (marble) is.

SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION

The car (marble) has GPE at the top of the slope, and it has KE at the bottom.  As the car (marble) rolls down the slope, GPE changes into KE.

As an object falls, its Gravitational Potential Energy is turned into Kinetic Energy.  The increase in GPE is equal to the increase in KE.  As energy is neither destroyed nor created, it must be equal (where there are no other energy transfers).  From this, I can conclude the following:

 

Since “m” is present on both sides of the equation, we can cancel it from both sides, leaving us with ½ V2 = GH.  When the above equation is rearranged, we can see:

This equation shows that mass will not affect the speed of an object, proving that whatever the mass of an object, the speed will always remain the same if all the other factors are kept constant.  The gravitational pull, g, will also not change, unless the experiment is carried out on a different planet as Earth’s is always equal to 10 Newtons per kilogram.  Therefore the only factor that can be varied is the height, h.  If the height of the slope is increased, the velocity of the marble will increase.

This shows that speed2 and the vertical height are directly proportional.  In theory, a graph including the two formulae would look like the one below, with the line of best fit going through the origin, at a forty-five degree angle:

Join now!

                 V2

                                           H

INITIAL EXPERIMENT:

This experiment was set up to investigate the aim as stated above:

APPARATUS

Stand and clamp

Plastic, v-shaped track

Three 30cm rulers

Stop clock

Marble (which will represent the roller coaster)

Plasticine

METHOD 

The apparatus will be set up as shown in the diagram (shown over page).  The height of the top of the ...

This is a preview of the whole essay