Should your rollercoaster hills be taller or shorter than the initial drop hill why?

The first hill of a roller coaster is always the highest point of the roller coaster because friction and drag immediately begin robbing the car of energy. At the top of the first hill, a car's energy is almost entirely gravitational potential energy (because its velocity is zero or almost zero).



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Each gain 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).

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Roller coasters almost always begin with an initial vertical drop. A motor hauls the cars to the top of a high hill and from that point on gravity is doing all the work. Typical vertical drops might range in height from 50 - 80 meters.

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(d) Due to frictional lost, the mechanical energy of the coaster has decreased, so the second hill has to be lower than the first one.

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Energy conservation Rollercoasters constantly shift between tapping into potential and kinetic energy. The kinetic energy gained when the train travels down the first hill – or fires out of the launch – gets it up the next, smaller hill.

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The first hill of a roller coaster is always the highest point of the roller coaster because friction and drag immediately begin robbing the car of energy.

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Every roller coaster begins with a very high hill. The higher the hill, the greater the potential or stored energy of the roller coaster car. When the car reaches the bottom of the hill, the potential energy has been completely converted into kinetic energy which is the energy of motion.

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This places some limits on the design. For example, the coaster car can't go through a loop or over a hill that is taller than the initial hill because going higher would require more energy than it has available. If the track is too long, friction might eventually cause the coaster car to come to a complete stop.

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There is a strong relationship between the height and speeds of the roller coasters, that is, in general, faster roller coasters tend to be taller.

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Roller Coaster Restrictions No ascent or descent can be steeper than 80 degrees from the horizontal. The roller coaster must start and end with a zero degree incline. The path of the coaster must be modeled using differentiable functions.

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At the bottom of the loop, gravity and the change in direction of the passenger's inertia from a downward vertical direction to one that is horizontal push the passenger into the seat, causing the passenger to once again feel very heavy.

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Throughout the ride the coaster travels up and down hills, shifting between potential and kinetic energy. You might notice, as the ride approaches the end, the hills tend to get lower. This is because the coaster has less energy to get up them.

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