What do roller coasters have in common

The origins of the roller coaster probably date back to Russia in the s, where ice sledding was a popular winter activity. It became so popular that people in relatively flat areas constructed their own hills out of snow and ice. The tops of these artificial hills were reached by way of elevated wood towers with stairways from the ground.

For a small charge, people could climb the stairway and take a quick, exciting ride down the hill on a sled. By the s, many owners of ice hills found a way to extend the profit potential of the ride beyond the winter months. They mounted wheels under small sleds and replaced the ice hills with ones constructed of wood.

Brightly colored lanterns were hung along the slope to allow night operation. Visitors from France saw these rides, which they called the Russian Mountains, and took the idea back with them. The first wheeled coaster opened in Paris in , and the coaster craze quickly spread throughout France. As the popularity of the rides grew, operators vied for the public's patronage by building faster and more exciting coasters. Unfortunately, safety devices did not keep pace with the speed, and accidents were common.

By the mids, the increasing number of injuries and a general loss of public interest took their toll. One-by-one the Russian Mountain coasters were dismantled. The development of the roller coaster might have stopped there had it not been for a defunct coal-hauling railroad in the United States.

The Mauch Chunk inclined railroad was built in Pennsylvania in the early s to haul coal from a mine atop a mountain to barges in a canal below.

Mules hauled the empty cars up the hill, and gravity brought the loaded cars, along with the mules, back down. In mining operations changed, and the railroad began hauling sightseers instead of coal. The one-and-a-half hour round trip cost one dollar and was an immediate success. The railroad continued to carry passengers until it closed in The success of the Mauch Chunk inclined railroad as a tourist attraction provided the inspiration for several similar amusement park rides on a smaller scale.

For a nickel, riders rode cars that coasted from one elevated station to another over a series of gentle hills supported on a wooden trestle. At the opposite end, the cars were switched onto a parallel track for the return trip. Alcoke's coaster was the first to use an oval-track design. Riders sat sideways on open benches as they were whisked along at what was then considered to be a break-neck speed of 12 mph 19 kph.

A third coaster was built on Coney Island in by Phillip Hinkle. Hinkle's coaster incorporated a chain lift to carry the cars up the first hill, thus allowing the passengers to board at ground level and saving them a climb. Roller coaster development hit its peak in the s when there were more than 1, wooden coasters in operation in the United States.

The economic hardships of the s and the wartime material shortages of the s put an end to that era. Amusement parks closed by the hundreds, and their wooden roller coasters either fell into disrepair or were tom down. It wasn't until Walt Disney opened the Matterhom Bobsled ride at Disneyland in that the era of modern steel roller coaster design began.

The Mauch Chunk coal-mine coasters used mules to bring cars back to the top of a straight path, if you recall. Interested in riding feet straight toward the sky and then descending at a rapid clip?

It goes from zero to miles per hour in only 3. The rest of the ride is a spiraling So, you want to go fast? This baby goes from zero to miles per hour in just 4. When it opened on August 1, , the Steel Dragon was the fastest, tallest and longest in the world. Others have stolen the fastest and tallest crowns, but the Dragon is still the longest. And what will you be doing in that time? After the chain lift hill is an initial drop of The train subsequently rises up and into the figure-eight shaped helix.

The research findings were remarkable. While lung function predictably reduced from the screaming and general upheaval, so did the feeling of shortness of breath. This suggests that thrill seekers riding roller coasters perceive the experience as stressful in a positive way.

Could differences in brain chemistry explain sensation seeking behaviours? The experiment with bungee jumpers suggest that people with higher levels of endorphins feel higher levels of euphoria. But there is no evidence that resting levels of endorphins might explain sensation seeking, they are more likely a response to the thrill than a predictor of whether we enjoy it. A recent review instead looked at the role of dopamine , another chemical messenger substance in the brain that is important in the functioning of neurological reward pathways.

The review found that individuals who happen to have higher levels of dopamine also score more highly on measures of sensation seeking behaviour. This line of research sets out the intriguing possibility that enjoyment of intense physical experiences such as riding on roller coasters may reflect individual differences in brain chemistry.

People who have higher levels of dopamine may be more prone to a number of sensation seeking behaviours, ranging from harmless roller coaster rides to taking drugs or even shoplifting. The question as to whether roller coaster riding still appeals as we get older has not been researched directly, but a recent survey looked at how keen people of different ages were on thrill-seeking holidays such as rock climbing trips. They examine conversions between kinetic and potential energy and frictional effects to design roller coasters that are compl High school students learn how engineers mathematically design roller coaster paths using the approach that a curved path can be approximated by a sequence of many short inclines.

They apply basic calculus and the work-energy theorem for non-conservative forces to quantify the friction along a curve Students are introduced to both potential energy and kinetic energy as forms of mechanical energy. A hands-on activity demonstrates how potential energy can change into kinetic energy by swinging a pendulum, illustrating the concept of conservation of energy.

Build a small roller coaster prototype out of foam pipe wrap insulation and marbles, but apply calculus and physics in the design! This real-world engineering challenge applies practical mathematics to test small-sized models on a real track. An understanding of forces, particularly gravity and friction, as well as some familiarity with kinetic and potential energy.

An understanding of Newton's second law of motion and basic motion concepts such as position, velocity and acceleration. Today's lesson is all about roller coasters and the science and engineering behind them. Before we start talking about physics, though, I'd like you to share some of your experiences with roller coasters. Listen to a few students describe their favorite roller coasters.

Point out some of the unique features of each coaster, such as hills and loops, that relate to the lesson. Does anyone know how roller coasters work? You might think that the roller coaster cars have engines inside them that push them along the track like automobiles. While that is true of a few roller coasters, most use gravity to move the cars along the track. Do any of you remember riding a roller coaster that started out with a big hill? If you looked closely at the roller coaster track on which the cars move , you would see in the middle of the track on that first hill, a chain.

You might have even have felt it "catch" to the cars. That chain hooks to the bottom of the cars and pulls them to the top of that first hill, which is always the highest point on a roller coaster. Once the cars are at the top of that hill, they are released from the chain and coast through the rest of the track, which is where the name roller coaster comes from. Figure 1. Example setup for quick lesson demo. What do you think would happen if a roller coaster had a hill in the middle of the track that was taller than the first hill of the roller coaster?

Would the cars be able to make it up this bigger hill using just gravity? Conduct a short demonstration to prove the point. Take a piece of foam pipe insulation cut in half lengthwise and shape it into a roller coaster by taping it to classroom objects such as a desktop and a textbook, as shown in Figure 1.

Then, using marbles to represent the cars, show students that the first hill of a roller coaster must be the tallest point or the cars will not reach the end of the track. Refer to the Building Roller Coasters activity for additional instructions. Next, play off other students' roller coaster experiences to move the lesson forward, covering the material provided in the Lesson Background and Vocabulary sections.

For example, talk about the point in the roller coaster where you travel the fastest, how cars make it through loops and corkscrews, and what causes passengers to feel weightless or very heavy at certain points in the roller coaster. The order in which you teach these points, and possibly more, is not critical to the lesson. Also, it may be more engaging for the students to ask questions based on their experiences with roller coasters and let those questions lead the lesson from one point to the next.

All of these points can be demonstrated using the foam tubing and marbles, so use them often to illustrate the lesson concepts. The underlying principle of all roller coasters is the law of conservation of energy, which describes how energy can neither be lost nor created; energy is only transferred from one form to another.

In roller coasters, the two forms of energy that are most important are gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy. Gravitational potential energy is greatest at the highest point of a roller coaster and least at the lowest point.

Kinetic energy is greatest at the lowest point of a roller coaster and least at the highest point. Potential and kinetic energy can be exchanged for one another, so at certain points the cars of a roller coaster may have just potential energy at the top of the first hill , just kinetic energy at the lowest point or some combination of kinetic and potential energy at all other points.

The first hill of a roller coaster is always the highest point of the roller coaster because friction and drag immediately begin robbing the car of energy.