Personal Narrative: The Physics Of Roller Coasters
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Roller coasters have always been the go to rides in carnivals. The physics of a roller coaster is quite simple yet complex. The complex part is the acceleration. Acceleration may not seem like such a big deal because people love fast rides. It actually takes many calculations to get the acceleration just right. If the ride is too slow, people loose interest in the ride but if it is too fast, people can die. Crazy right? The reason behind this is because since the acceleration is so fast, gravity stops blood from going to the eyes and brain; since roller coaster rides aren’t just one time around the tracks, its normally like three or four times, this increased amount of time on the ride with fast acceleration means people can blackout and experience…show more content… Maybe researching more about them, I will have the confidence to ride one without being afraid. When I was smaller, I got on a roller coaster with my mom. At first, I was calm but when it started speeding up and going in circles I took my belt off, stood up and hid at my mom’s feet. She was so scared that I took my belt off, especially because the roller coaster goes upside down. I have no idea how I was not injured but I was in for a scare. My “fun-damental” theory on how physics affects rollercoasters is that without physics, rollercoasters are nothing but a train that goes around in a circle. Even though you might think physics in no way applies to our everyday lives it does and in very awkward ways. Because rollercoasters have kinetic energy, potential energy, gravity( the force its self not actually gravity), Newton’s first law of motion ( an object in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by another force) , inertia, acceleration( the change in velocity) , conversion of energy (converting potential to kinetic and back again in this case) and vertical displacement. With this we can see that if we removed even one of these aspects, nothing would be the same. If we removed the potential energy, how would there be enough kinetic energy to create the fast…show more content… The physics of roller coasters includes; PE=mgh (potential energy) ( m is the mass of the roller coaster, g is the acceleration due to gravity and h is height) KE=1/2 mv^2 ( in this formula v equals the speed the roller coaster and m again equals the mass) if no there is no friction lost and energy in conserved then the new formula would be V=√2gh. Another formula that will be needed for roller coasters is centripetal acceleration especially if there is a loop the loop or a twist. So the formula for the loop is a_c=v^2/R and the formula for the twist is A_c= w^12 R (w is the rate of the twist of the riders and R is the radius of the twist where the rider is).In this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Tredv0Yq1M) we can see how everything works and it explains how the loops work with the formulas as well as the twists. To put physics to the test, the fastest roller coaster in the whole world is in Dubai. Its called the Fourmula Mossa, it reaches 149.1 mph and it goes from 0-149.1 in 4 seconds! Formula has no loops or twists and has a height of 170.5 ft with a length of 6,561.7 ft. It consists of 4 trains each having 4 cars, the risk-taking riders are 2 across and 2 rows for a total of 16 people per train. And most importantly safety googles are needed and provided for this ride, the roller coaster only lasts about 92 seconds. Earlier I mentioned that if a ride goes too fast blood will stop flowing, is