Today
our group made progress on the research of energy transformations and how they work in a
rollercoaster. Our group’s findings and sources are as shown below.
The rollercoaster's total energy through the entire ride will be derived from
its gravitational potential energy at the start of the ride. Our group made
sure that the hills throughout the ride were not higher than the start, as the
rollercoaster would not create sufficient energy required to climb other hills.
The rollercoaster will slowly lose its energy due to forces such as
friction and air resistance. This allows the rollercoaster to stop without any
assistance as all its energy is displaced from the forces. At the peak of a
rollercoaster hill, the rollercoaster car goes from travelling upwards to flat,
and then to moving downward. This change in direction is known as acceleration,
and this makes riders feel as if a force is acting upon them. Similarly, at the
bottom of hills riders feel as if a force is pushing them down into their
seats. These forces can be referred to in terms of gravity and are called
gravitational forces, or g-forces. One 'g' is the force applied by gravity
while standing on Earth at sea level.
Cars in rollercoasters always move the fastest at the bottom of hills. This is
related to the concept that at the bottom of hills, all of the potential energy
has been converted to kinetic energy, which leads to increased speed. Likewise,
cars always travel the slowest at their highest point, which is the top of
hills. Because of this, rollercoaster cars can only make it through loops if
they have enough speed at the top of the loop. This minimum speed is referred
to as the critical velocity, and is equal to the square root of the radius of
the loop multiplied by the gravitational amount. (vc = 1/2rg)
Kinetic
energy - the energy that an
object possesses due to its motion. The rollercoaster car speeds up as it loses height. Thus, its original potential energy is transformed into kinetic energy.
The clinch in height corresponds to the loss of speed as kinetic energy (due to
speed) is transformed into potential energy (due to height). Each loss in
height corresponds to a gain of speed as potential energy (due to height) is
transformed into kinetic energy (due to speed).
Potential
energy - the energy that an object has due to
its relevant
positioning on a force field. The type of potential energy that is relevant to our
rollercoaster is the gravitational potential energy of an object depending
on its vertical position. The higher the rollercoaster, the larger the
gravitational potential energy.
Forces - a force is any interaction that, when
unopposed, will change the motion of an object.The
forces acting on the rollercoaster include air resistance, gravity and
friction. Friction would cause some of the potential energy the cars started off
with to decrease, when the wheels rub against the track. Air resistance also
takes away some of the energy as well. Gravity is
an internal natural force, hence does not really
change the total of energy from the car.
Mechanical energy - mechanical
energy is the energy that is possessed by an object due to its motion or due to
its position. Mechanical energy can be either kinetic energy (energy of motion)
or potential energy (stored energy of position). This applies to a
rollercoaster as it has gravitational potential energy due to its height and
kinetic energy as the rollercoaster travels downhill.
Bibliography
-The Physics Classroom
(1996). Energy Transformation on a Rollercoaster. Retrieved from
http://www.physicsclassroom.com/mmedia/energy/ce.cfm
-Hewitt, Paul G (1998). Instructor's Manual, Conceptual Physics.
London: Addison Wesley. 398. (Accessed 14/10/2015)
-D'Agustino, Steven, Adaption,
Resistance and Access to Instructional Technologies, Fordham, 2011, Print
(Accessed 14/10/2015)
