What is the science behind roller coaster loops?

When an object moves in a circle, which is effectively what a roller coaster does when it travels through a loop, the moving object is forced inward toward what's called the center of rotation. It's this push toward the center—centripetal force—that keeps an object moving along a curved path.



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This force is centripetal force and helps keep you in your seat. In the loop-the-loop upside down design, it's inertia that keeps you in your seat. Inertia is the force that presses your body to the outside of the loop as the train spins around.

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As the coaster gains height, it loses speed. With this lower speed, the curvature of the track can be decreased to keep the needed centrifugal acceleration. We know that the centripetal acceleration is proportional to v2/r, as the velocity reduces then we can decrease the radius to keep the acceleration a constant.

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Officials in the US state of Wisconsin are investigating how eight people became trapped upside down on a roller coaster at a festival; some of them for more than three hours. The roller coaster's cars got stuck near the top of a loop around 1:30 pm Sunday at the Crandon International Offroad Raceway.

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The normal force however has a small magnitude at the top of the loop (where the rider often feels weightless) and a large magnitude at the bottom of the loop (where the rider often feels heavy).

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06 September 22 - 5 Interesting Facts About Roller Coasters
  • The First Roller Coaster was Built in 1817. ...
  • Britain's Oldest Surviving Roller Coaster was Built in 1920. ...
  • There are More Than 2,400 Roller Coasters in the World Today. ...
  • Roller Coaster are Among the Safest Rides. ...
  • Roller Coaster Loops are Never Perfectly Circular.


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While the roller coaster moves downward and increases it's velocity, the momentum increases. Momentum helps determine how hard it would be to stop a roller coaster so it would be harder to stop the roller coaster if it has more momentum.

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If the tracks slope down, gravity pulls the front of the car toward the ground, so it accelerates. If the tracks tilt up, gravity applies a downward force on the back of the coaster, so it decelerates.

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Roller coasters are designed to run on two basic scientific principles: 1) gravity and 2) the transfer of energy. On Earth, gravity is the force that pulls objects toward the ground. The transfer of energy is what causes objects at rest to move and objects in motion to slow or stop.

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The Smiler at Alton Towers holds the world record for the number of inversions on a roller coaster with 14.

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Here it is, the latest in a long history of world records set at Six Flags Magic Mountain: Full Throttle. The number one tallest and fastest looping roller coaster in the world.

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Contact The Author One person was killed and several others were injured when they plunged from a roller coaster Sunday — after it partially careened off its tracks in a terrifying accident inside Sweden's oldest amusement park.

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