Paper Roller Coasters

Engineering Journal
Name: Henry
Group: Henry, Luke, Carson, Nate
Period: 2nd
Due date: May 19, 2023

Problem: The local amusement park has issued a challenge to roller coaster
designers to determine who should build their next roller coaster. You’ll need to
prove that you can make an exciting roller coaster that meets their requirements
using as little money as possible. The coaster should be exciting, reliable, and
take a long time for the marble to travel from the start to finish.
Criteria:
* Roller coaster is made entirely of paper and tape (except for marble “car”).
* Roller coaster is fixed securely to a base 18˝x 24˝.
* Height is between 30 cm and 100 cm.
* Track length must be at least 150 cm
* At least one loop AND at least six turns.
* A marble must successfully complete the track 5 times.
* Bucket at the end to catch marbles.
* Decorations
TESTING - After you are done building, you will test your paper Roller Coaster by
placing one marble at a time on it. Record the amount of time that it takes for
each marble to reach the bucket at the end of the trak. If the marble gets stuck
or falls off the track, write N/A for that trial.
Trial #1 11.46 seconds
Trial #2 3.42 seconds
Trial #3 3.81 seconds
Trial #4 18.24 seconds
Trial #5 8.65 seconds
Total time for all trials= 45.58 seconds
Enter your total time for the five trials in the chart below. Your teacher will
help you complete the rest of the chart.

Plan/Imagine: Brainstorm ideas for your roller coaster design: Consider the
following:
∙ Height of starting point
∙ Where you will position the curve, loop, and hill
∙ What element of your own you could include to make it more fun
Type
Cost
How Many in your Roller Coaster
Type
Cost
How Many in your Roller Coaster
Column
$0.50
13
Straight track
$1.00
7
Beam
$0.50
9
Sharp turn
$1.25
1
Diag. Support
$0.10
7
Wide turn
$1.25
1
Shelf
$0.05
0
Funnel
&2.50
2
Bracket
$0.05
0
Loop
$1.50
1

Category
Points
Total time (5 trials) each second +1 point

Reliability Bonus (30 point if all trials reached bucket)

Height> 30 cm and < 100 cm (10 pts) How Tall? _____________

Track length > 150 cm ? (10 pts) How Long? ____________

At least one loop? (10 pts)

 At least six turns? (10 pts)

Bucket at end to catch marbles? (10 pts)

Uphill sections (5 pts for each section of track where marble goes uphill)
Must include picture of these at end of this document.

Decorations ( up to 30 points) must include picture of decorated roller

coaster

Construction quality (up to 30 points)

Excitement value (up to 30 points) must include video of roller coaster

showing the marble going the whole journey

TOTAL CONSTRUCTION SCORE

Cost of Materials ($1 = 1point)

-
Final score (total construction - cost)

Estimate: How many of each template you will need:

Create: Make your roller coaster following your plan.

Experiment: After you build your roller coaster, test it out. Check for:
* Is it fun and exciting?
* Does the marble complete the entire track?
* Does the marble stay in contact with the track the whole time?

Reflection: What worked and what didn't work? Some of the turns and straight tracks
and problems with support were constant. However, after adding support all of our
stuff worked well.
Improve:
How could you change your design to:
∙ Be more fun and exciting
∙ Have the marble complete the entire track
∙ Stay in contact with the track throughout the entire course
∙ Other: Add more turns and maybe like add more decorations. Its also kind of
wobbly and not lined
Changes I will make (at least 3 must be listed)
What I changed
Why I changed it
Result of change
I made the sharp turn work.

It was the entire point of our track and we needed it for the vertical drop
and the wide turn
It made our wide turn work because it allowed it to gain speed which leads to
our funnels.

I added the vertical drops.

It allowed us to gain speed at both of the turns and at the loop, which led
to funnel
It made the turns and loops work, which led to our funnel at the end.

I layed out the foundation for our track

 I layed out the designs we were going to use to represent where all of the
stuff was going.
It allowed us to be organized and certain people worked on each thing, and we
just worked on it correctly and right.

Uphill sections (5 pts for each section of track where marble goes uphill) (must
include pictures of these here)

Decorations ( up to 30 points)
Excitement value (up to 30 points)

Roller Coaster Data sheet

Diagram: On your FINAL diagram of your roller coaster on the page above (p. 7).
∙ Label the top A and the bottom E.
∙ Find another point on the track where the marble is speeding up. Label it B. ∙
Find another point on the track where the marble is not speeding up or slowing
down. Label it C. ∙ Find another point on the track where the marble is slowing
down. Label it D.

Use points A, B, C, D, and E to fill in the data table:

Point
Location
Height (m)
Divide by 100
PE (J)
PE= mgh
m=.006kg
Ideal ME (J)
ME=PEA
Ideal v(m/s)

A
TOP
.81
.393
.1544
.6174
B
FIRST TURN
.60
 .216
.0466
.3941
C
SECOND AND THIRD TURN
.52
.162
.0262
.3174
D
LAST FUNNEL
.19
.021
.0004
.0648
E
BOTTOM
0
0
0
0

Questions
1. At what point do you have the greatest PE? A At what point do you have
the greatest KE? E
2. At what point do you have the lowest PE? E At what point do you have
the lowest KE? E
3. Attach a 1-m length of straight track to the end of your roller coaster. Time
how long it takes for the marble to travel the 1 m after traveling down the roller
coaster. Do this 5 times, and take the average. Use the average time and 1-m
distance to calculate the final velocity of the marble at the bottom of the
coaster:
Trial 1
Trial 2
Trial 3
Trial 4
Trial 5
Average t(s)
9.42
5.82
4.80
2.43
11.31
6.756

Equation
Plug in #’s
V (m/s)
V = d/t
v=.81/6.756
.12m/s

4. Does the ideal velocity at the bottom of the track (see table) match the actual
velocity that you calculated above? Why or why not? No because we have a funnel
that stops the speed until it gets to the bucket.
5. Why is your roller coaster the best? State as many reasons as you can and back
up each one with data or observations from your roller coaster. Your answer should
include the concepts of potential energy, kinetic energy, velocity, and
acceleration. Answer this on a separate sheet of paper and attach it.

Our roller coaster is the best because we have two seperate paths and a lot of
vertical drops, not to mention we have a lot of funnels that lead to our track, and
slows it down allowing for excitement and to really experience whats happening. It
adds excitement because it slows down the ride and experience the person riding it
to see what’s happening. At the top it starts with a lot of potential energy that
slows down the coaster because of our funnels. Sometimes it speeds up as well due
to the vertical drops. Also with the kinetic energy, we only decreased because of
the funnels on one path of the track. The other one is extremely fast and very
exciting. Using velocity, our track was moving very fast through the vertical drops
and loops, and turned directions due to our double path track. Also our funnels at
the end combined the acceleration from both tracks that ended with the funnel that
dropped into the bucket.