Objective: Design a marble roller coaster that has a vertical drop of no more than two meters, and has at least two vertical loops. Use the principle of conservation of energy to design your roller coaster and then evaluate how successful your design is. You should also include a pendulum and spring somewhere within your roller coaster.
Materials: You may use any recycled materials for your roller coaster.
You MAY NOT have someone else build it for you.
Write-Up: You will be required to complete a lab report for this activity, including the following:
Problem: How does the Law of Conservation of Energy control the design of a roller coaster? Will the total mechanical energy be the same at the top and at the bottom of the roller coaster? How are energy and momentum transferred through a pendulum and a spring?
Background: Describe and explain the factors that affect the marble as it moves through your roller coaster. Describe the energy and momentum changes that will occur as the marble moves through the roller coaster, collides with the pendulum, and impacts the spring.
Hypothesis: Predict if your design will work. Predict if the total mechanical energy and momentum will be conserved throughout the system. Justify your predictions.
Procedure: Provide a step by step description of how you built your roller coaster. Provide a labeled diagram (blue-print). Include all measurements used to collect necessary data.
Results: Describe what happened to the marble as it moved through the roller coaster, collided with the pendulum, and impacted the spring. Include all measurements and calculations necessary to prove your hypothesis in an organized data table.
Conclusion: Did your design work? Why or why not? What where your sources of error? How could you improve upon your design? Were energy and momentum conserved throughout the system? Why or why not? How do you know?
