Va Instructors of Physics

You are a secret agent from a competing amusement park. Your task is to take a roller coaster and find out EVERYTHING you can about the roller coaster.

PART 1 Most roller coasters wrap themselves in a circle. Draw a SCALE drawing of your roller coaster's first 5 peaks and dips if you could straighten it out. (You do not have to use all the horizontal length of this graphing space -the numbers are just for reference.)

Label each hill's peak as a letter, A - E on your scale drawing. You do not have to use every letter. Note, the top of a loop counts as a hill peak.
Label each dip as a number, 1 - 5 on your scale drawing. You do not have to use every number. Note, each time the roller coaster is at the bottom of a loop counts as a different dip.

PART 2 Calculate the height at each peak.
PEAKS
A B C D E
PART 3 Calculate the velocity at each letter and number.
PEAKS
A B C D E
DIPS
1 2 3 4 5 6

PART 4 Someone in your group needs to ride the roller coaster. Measure the g’s at the first 4 dips and hills. Note which part of the car you are riding in at the time of the measurement.

g's Number of rows of seats from the front (middle is best)
1
2
3
4

PART 5 Measure the g's at the first 2 dips and the first 2 peaks after the initial hill from the back, middle and front of the train.
For each location indicate how many seats from the front you are riding.
Location BACK g's MIDDLE g's FRONT g's
A
B
1
2
PART 6 Using the velocity and acceleration for each dip, calculate the radius of curvature for the first 4 dips.
1 2
3 4
PART 7 What is the average velocity for the entire ride?
PART 8 Excluding the time it takes for the roller coaster to travel up the first hill, estimate the length of the remaining track, measure the time it takes for the train to travel this length and calculate the average velocity for this section of track.
Length:
Time:
Average Velocity:

PART 9 Estimate the height of the first DROP.

PART 10 Use your estimated numbers and any other numbers you need to measure and/or calculate to calculate the height of the first drop using conservation of energy methods.