Math In Creating A Marble Roller Coaster

You ll need two lengths of pipe each about 1 8 meters long some tape a calculator a stopwatch and measuring.

Math in creating a marble roller coaster.

You ll be creating a homemade marble run and exploring what happens to the marble as you make changes to the track. You may only use the materials provided. Each group received one six foot piece of tubing and one marble. Your marble must land in the cup at the end of the run.

This activity gives students hands on experience with several mathematical and physical concepts in the development of a safe roller coaster. Just like the cars on a real roller coaster the marble has potential energy when it is at the top of the hill. Build a roller coaster with 2 hills and one loop. Build your own marble roller coaster in this project and find out.

The roller coaster starts with an initial drop usually a very high hill so the coaster gains enough speed. The mathematics of. You may tape your run to furniture. Rolling downhill later in this activity you will make roller coasters for marbles out of foam pipe insu lation.

Let s begin by measuring the speed your marble can attain. I used this marble roller coaster activity to kick off our discussion of kinetic and potential energy in physical science. As it rolls it gains speed and momentum. This enables the marble to continue rolling when it comes to the smaller hills.

Background roller coasters rely on two types of energy to operate. Ngss k ps2 2 follow our science for kids pinterest board. Using only these materials and tape each group had to create a roller coaster that included one loop. To keep roller coasters on the track make sure to do the math.

Gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy.