Student Exploration: Roller Coaster Physics
Directions: Follow the instructions to go through the simulation. Respond to the questions and
prompts in the orange boxes.
Vocabulary: friction, gravitational potential energy, kinetic energy, momentum
Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)
Sally gets onto the roller coaster car, a bit nervous already. Her heart beats faster as
the car slowly goes up the first long, steep hill.
1. What happens at the beginning of every roller coaster ride?
You either start by going up a hill and then down or start at
the top of a hill.
2. Does the roller coaster ever get higher than the first hill? Explain.
No. The rollercoaster usually goes over smaller and smaller
hills.
Gizmo Warm-up
The Roller Coaster Physics Gizmo models a roller coaster with a toy car on
a track that leads to an egg. You can change the track or the car. For the
first experiment, use the default settings (Hill 1 = 70 cm, Hill 2 = 0 cm, Hill 3 = 0 cm, 35-g car).
1. Press Play ( ) to roll the 35-gram toy car down the track. Does the car break the egg? No
2. Click Reset ( ). Set Hill 1 to 80 cm, and click Play. Does the car break the egg? Yes 3. Click Reset. Lower Hill 1 back to 70 cm and select the 50-gram toy car. Click Play. Does
the 50-gram car break the egg?
Yes
4. What factors seem to determine whether the car will break the egg?
Mass and height.
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1/14/24, 2:21 PM Roller Coaster SE Gizmos
about:blank 2/5
Activity A:
Roller coaster
speed
Get the Gizmo ready: ● Click Reset. ● Select the 35-g toy car. Question: What factors determine the speed of a roller coaster?
1. Observe: Set Hill 1 to 100 cm, Hill 2 to 0 cm, and Hill 3 to 0 cm. Be sure the Coefficient of friction is set
to 0.00. (This means that there is no friction, or resistance to motion.)
A. Click Play. What is the final speed of the toy car? 442.9 cm/s
B. Try the other cars. Does the mass of the car affect its
final speed?
No
2. Collect data: Find the final speed of a toy car in each situation. Leave the last column blank.
Hill 1 Hill 2 Hill 3 Final speed Total Height
Lost
40 cm 0 cm 0 cm 280.1 cm/s 40 cm
40 cm 30 cm 0 cm 280.1 cm/s 40 cm
60 cm 50 cm 20 cm 280.1 cm/s 40 cm
60 cm 0 cm 0 cm 343.1 cm/s 60 cm
60 cm 45 cm 0 cm 343.1 cm/s 60 cm
90 cm 75 cm 30 cm 343.1 cm/s 60 cm
3. Analyze: Look at the data carefully. Notice that it is organized into two sets of three trials.
A. What did each set of trials have in common? They had the same final speed.
B. Did hill 2 have any effect on the final speed? No
C. Label the last column of the table Total height
lost. Fill in this column by subtracting the height
of hill 3 from the height of hill 1.
Done!
D. What do you notice about the Total height lost in
each set of trials?
The totla height loss was the same
for each set of trials.