Roller Coaster Project

The fourth unit of AP Physics 1 was Energy which covered the law of the conservation of energy, the different types of energies, and how to calculate them. For this unit's project, I was in a group with Nora Schiltgen and Deepti Bhat and we were asked to first design a roller coaster, account for all energy conversions, and create a presentation explaining how we got the energy transfers. 

Designing Our Roller Coaster & Accounting All Energy Conversions

We originally designed a roller coaster that would start with a steep slope and a high height with a loop and eventually slope downwards to a stop, but we soon discovered that simply a steep slop was not enough speed required to fully loop the loop. So we then experimented with a launcher/spring starter which gave the car enough energy to go through the loop, but the car kept going off the track. So we then set out to find a better car, which there weren't many after everyone had already chosen the good ones. We eventually wound up with a track on a flat surface with a spring starter, then a loop, and it end with a slope for the car to keep swaying back and forth until it came to rest. After designing our "coaster", we ran the roller coaster one last time, getting it on video to calculate the energy transfers. 

Content

Velocity (v): speed of something in a given direction; v = Δd/Δt ¹

Centripetal Velocity (vc): required velocity for an object to "maintain" the circle/loop; vc = square root of gr

Kinetic Energy (K): energy an object has when it is in motion; K = 1/2mv²

Potential Gravitational Energy (Ug): energy an object has when it is not at ground level; Ug = 

Spring Potential Energy (Uₛ): energy stored in a spring; 1/2kx2 (k = Fₛ/x) ²

Thermal Energy (Eₜₕ): amount of energy lost to friction/heat; Eₜₕ = Ff Δx ³

¹ To find the Δd, we took an even "chunk" before and after the point, we wanted to measure and measured the Δd, and for time we looked at the video on our phones in edit mode (to access the 1/100s of a second) and took the Δt. 

² k = spring constant found using Hooke's law; Fₛ = force exerted on spring; x = distance spring compressed or expanded due to force

³ Eₜₕ can also be found by subtracting the total energy from whatever energies you know exist. Whatever's left over/the remainder is Eₜₕ. 

Reflection

I think this has been my best project for AP Physics this semester because I genuinely understood the content and thought process behind everything. Out of the 6C's, I think that 2 things I did really well in were character and critical thinking. At one point, my group disagreed about weather points 5 and 6 had any kinetic energy and I stood strong about there not being any kinetic energy. We talked it out and agreed on a middle ground, which kept everyone happy. Also, when we had to calculate the energy conversions, we used evidence to back up what each of us were thinking and how we thought about it which I think we handled professionally and calmly. 

But 2 things I need to work on are being a conscientious learner and culturally competent. I think we could've managed our time a little better because we crammed the slideshow the day before we had to present to the class and I think this was the reason why we had a couple of typos or areas of confusion in our presentation/slideshow. I had noticed this pattern lately in my projects where we had to present and we weren't prepared enough. Also, I think when we were designing our roller coaster, we could've looked at roller coasters outside of the US and broaden our research to see what other options/possibilities there were.