Physics Roller

Coaster
By: Destiny Diaz &
Sophia Gonzalez
Assignment
For this assignment we were asked the question: How tall does the drop have
to be for the ball to go through two loops? We were asked to create a small
scale roller coaster. We would be graded based on the rubric:
Scientific Knowledge

Information Gathering

Plan

Data Collection

Construction/Materials

Journal/Log Content

Speaks Clearly
Plan
Our plan was to pool noodles for our track and use a marble because we
thought the large marble would be faster since it's heavy and would propel
itself with its weight. We also did not want to make the track very tall because
it would be a lot more work. We expected it to be very tall because we needed
more speed in order to get it through the two loops. The loops would need a
lot of force to get through if they were going to be 12 inches in diameter.
Terms
Potential Energy: The stored energy of an object based on its position.

Kinetic Energy: The energy that an object has while in motion.

Conservation of Energy: a principle stating that energy cannot be created or

destroyed, but can be altered from one form to another.

Gravity:the force that attracts a body toward the center of the earth, or
toward any other physical body having mass
Terms (Continued)
Velocity: the speed of something in a given direction.

Friction: the resistance that one surface or object encounters when moving
over another.

Slope: a surface of which one end or side is at a higher level than another; a
rising or falling surface.
Progress/Journal
We first started from the inch pipe

and created two loops close to each

other. At first it worked but the

height needed to be really tall

so around 5ft.
We realized that the ball was not moving fast

enough to go through the second loop. From

the other projects we saw their pipes were much

wider than ours, so we switched out the

already made coaster with the new one.

The loops also weren't that big in diameter so

We started from scratch attempting to make

The loops bigger.

We then measured the length of the pipe to

answer the first question. We noticed that the

higher the ramp the faster the marble went. It

would work at an angle, a very steep angle. A

Good 8/10 times the ball would go through the

Loop which was good progress.

We realized that hot glue wouldn't work

good on the styrofoam because it would

simply melt. So we used super glue

and double sided tape as adhesives.

the glue worked for small errors.The lips

of the loops would also bend when we

tried to fold it so we had to continue to cut

It along the edges.

We set up the loops next to

each other and the big ball

almost makes it through. The

smaller marble however goes

through better. The larger marble

was able to go through a good

6/10 times

through.
Final Outcome
When we used the tubes with one inch diameters the ball went through both
tubes. We were did a few tests to ensure that the ball actually made it all the
way through so it wouldn't fall going down the final loop last minute. The
height of the drop was 3 feet and 9 inches, and the loops were around 10-12
diameters.
SLOs
In this project we practiced:

Communicating Ideas

Weighing Perspectives

We communicated Ideas by talking to one another on what height would

work best for the marble. Since we had a few days left before the project
was finished we had to talk about what we were going to do and how it
would work out. In weighing perspectives, we had to recognize one
another's ideas in order to get a better understanding of what would
work and what wouldn't. We listened to each other when one brought up
an idea to be able to incorporate it and test it in our project.
THE END