Roller Coaster Research Paper

The roller coaster is a popular amusement ride developed for amusement parks and modern theme parks. Most roller coasters consist of some basic parts: a chain lift, a catapult launch-lift (in newer coasters), and some type of brake mechanism. The first roller coaster originated in the early 80’s in Russia, it was built under the orders of a Russian empress named Catherine the Great in the Garden of Oranienbaum a Russian royal residence located in Saint Petersburg.

Roller coasters work by using gravity to move along the track, most think they have an engine inside that pushes them along the track like an automobile. The first part of a roller coaster is always a big hill; the biggest hill is always the highest point. The purpose of this
is to gain two very important things gravitational potential energy, and kinetic energy. The reason these two things are important is because over the course of the coaster ride those two things propel the coaster, by exchanging for one another and sometimes combining. They can be exchanged for one another because at certain points on the ride the roller coaster may just have potential energy (like at the top of the first hill), or just kinetic energy (like at the lowest points) or maybe a combination of both kinetic and potential (like at all other parts) of the ride. Kinetic energy is relative to speed and potential energy is relative to height, so the kinetic energy will always be the highest at the lowest points and vice versa.

Like the info above states, there a 3 basic parts of a roller coaster I will now explain those.
First is the chain lift; a type of lift hill found on roller coasters. It is the most common method of lift hill, and has been used for hundreds of years. A chain lift is propelled by one or two motors under the lift hill. As the motor turns, it moves the chain. When the train enters the lift hill the chain dog attaches itself, and it propels the car forward. Second is the catapult launch-lift; a relatively new part that sets cart in motion, instead of building up potential energy it quickly creates a large amount of kinetic energy. The most popular systems are either a Linear Induction Motor which use electromagnets or the Rotating Wheels method which use thousands of spinning wheels to propel the cart. Last are the brakes; a series of clamps are positioned on the track at the end of the ride, these clamps close in on metal fins under the ride that gradually use friction to slow the ride
down.

Friction; is it a friend or foe?
Friction exists in all roller coasters, and it takes away from the useful energy provided by the roller coaster. Friction is caused in roller coasters by the rubbing of car wheels on the track and by the rubbing of air against the carts. Friction turns all the energy being exerted from the roller coaster into heat energy. This serves no purpose in propelling cars along the track. Friction is the reason coasters can’t go on forever. So minimizing friction is one of the biggest challenges for roller coaster engineers. On the other end, if there were no friction the cart would never be able to stop, eliminating all brake mechanism’s that use any type of friction. So basically roller coaster engineers have two choices, let the coaster go on forever without a brake mechanism or deal with friction as best they can without reducing safety
also.
There are many things a roller coaster engineer can put on a roller coaster track to make it a little more fun, like twists and turns but the one we see the most are definitely loops. Loops are a type of centrifuge which in the roller coaster road is any type of various rotating devices for subjecting human beings or animals to varying accelerations. As you approach a loop your inertial velocity is straight ahead of you. But the track keeps the coaster car, and therefore your body, from traveling along this straight path. As you move around the loop, the net force acting on your body is constantly changing. At the top of the loop, when you're completely upside down, gravity is pulling you out of your seat, toward the ground, but the stronger acceleration force is pushing you into your seat, toward the sky. Since both forces push you in the same direction, you feel especially heavy at this point. . As you come out of the loop and level out, you become heavy again. As in the sharp descent, you are almost weightless for the brief moment when you are at the top of the loop. The loop is amazing because it crams so much into such a short length of track. The varying forces put your body through the whole range of sensations in a matter of seconds.