What force keeps a roller coaster car on the track?

For a roller coaster, gravity pulls down on the cars and its riders with a constant force, whether they move uphill, downhill, or through a loop. The rigid steel tracks, together with gravity, provide the centripetal force needed to keep the cars on the arching path as they move through the loop.



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You might think that the roller coaster cars have engines inside them that push them along the track like automobiles. While that is true of a few roller coasters, most use gravity to move the cars along the track.

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Gravity applies a constant downward force on the cars. The coaster tracks serve to channel this force — they control the way the coaster cars fall. If the tracks slope down, gravity pulls the front of the car toward the ground, so it accelerates.

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For a roller coaster, gravity pulls down on the cars and its riders with a constant force, whether they move uphill, downhill, or through a loop. The rigid steel tracks, together with gravity, provide the centripetal force needed to keep the cars on the arching path as they move through the loop.

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Roller coaster wheels are designed to prevent the cars from flipping off the track. They secure the train to the track while it travels through fancy loops and twists. When you go upside down on a roller coaster, inertia keeps you from falling out.

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A roller coaster ride comes to an end. Magnets on the train induce eddy currents in the braking fins, giving a smooth rise in braking force as the remaining kinetic energy is absorbed by the brakes and converted to thermal energy.

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Traditionally, a rollercoaster relies on gravitational potential energy – the energy it possesses due to its height. It is pulled to the top of a big hill, the highest point of the ride, and released.

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If the tracks tilt up, gravity applies a downward force on the back of the coaster, so it decelerates. Since an object in motion tends to stay in motion (Newton's first law of motion), the coaster car will maintain a forward velocity even when it is moving up the track, opposite the force of gravity.

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Coasters stop by the use of many types of brakes. A traditional method of stopping a coaster train is by fin brakes. Fins are attached to the undercarriage of the coaster car and slide into a series of clamps attached to the track.

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