The Perfect Roller Coaster

Abstract

The Perfect Roller Coaster

What Angle Makes the Best Roller Coaster

Have you ever wondered why some roller coasters seem to go faster and are more enjoyable than others? Well, for my science fair project I decided to put this question to the test by testing what angles make a roller coaster go faster than others. My reasoning for choosing this project is because of my love of Roller Coasters and wanting to know how they were built. I believe that the roller coaster will have to be at a 70 degree angle in order to complete the track and do it the fastest.

Creating my roller coaster model was not a walk in the park and took many steps to make. For starters, I had to plan out what materials I needed which included; marbles, pipe insulator, ½ inch dowel, two 2 X 4’s, a piece of plywood, drill, razor blade, screws, and duct tape. This was followed by thinking of an idea of how this was going to come together. With this design it should include where you are going to make the holes for the dowel to slide in. After making a design, it was time to buy the supplies. The majority of the supplies can be found at Home Depot except marbles which can be found at a dollar store. When all the supplies are gathered, it was time to build the coaster. I started my cutting the 2 X 4’s to six feet. After, they were cut I drilled screws in the two by fours from the bottom, attaching them to the plywood. After they were in place I drilled the holes at equal intervals on each side for the dowel to side across. After completing this, I started to tape together all the pipe insulator together. After it was ready to be screwed into the wood I came upon a major problem that affected the coaster tremendously. I realized that the marbles I had were magnetic and stuck to the screws, so I had to go with plan B which was to use duct tape. After that it was time to test.

During my testing I realized there was another problem. For all the heights I realized the second bump would cause the marble to fall out of it, so I had to change the shape of the bump. After I fixed it it looked kinda like a horseshoe. Now with the coaster ready to be tested it was time to get down to business. From 10 degrees to 35 degrees the marble couldn't even complete the loop. The ball would just go about halfway then fall to the bottom of the track. From 40 to 45 degrees the marble could complete the loop but didn't have enough energy to go over the hill. Surprisingly though one time I tested 45 degrees it completed the course but it was the only time it did out of five attempts so I ruled it out. At 50 degrees the marble completed the track 4 out of the 5 times I tested it so I came to a conclusion and ruled it as a completed track.Lastly, from 55 to 70 degrees they all completed the track.

With all this data I came to my conclusions. I was able to conclude that a 50 degree angle should be suffice enough to build a roller coaster. But in order to make a fast and super fun roller coaster it will have to be a 70 degree angle. The average time was 2.50 which was the fastest of all angles. This proved my hypothesis correct because I predicted a 70 degree angle would work the best which was true. If I were to re do my project I would have made more angles because my max angle was the fastest which means maybe a 80 or 90 degree angle would have worked better. Overall, my project and its data is correct and I wouldn't change much in order to make it better

Conclusion

The reason I chose this project is because I always wondered what makes certain roller coasters more exciting than others. After testing I concluded that a 50 degree angle will be suffice in order to complete the track. I also was able to prove my hypothesis correct because I predicted that a 70 degree angle would go the fastest. The average time was 2.50 which were the fastest of all angles. The reason why I believe that the results came out the way they did is because gravity forces objects to the ground so the closer the angle gets to 90 degrees the faster it will fall. This also leads me to the question of if your max was 70 degrees would you think it would go faster at any higher angles. I believe that it was my only flaw in my project, but if I did go up to 90 degrees it makes me would if it would actually complete its decent, because at 70 degrees the ball looked like it was about to fall out. Overall, my observations and test clearly show that a 70 degree angle is the best angle possible for a roller coaster.

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