my experience about roller coaster

FDAVI Physics
Akinwumi Fiyin 05-01-2014
MY EXPERIENCE ABOUT ROLLER COASTERS
I had a great experience about roller coasters even though I have not climbed one before. Roller coaster is a popular amusement ride developed for amusement parks and modern theme parks. There are two main types of roller coasters which are the steel and wooden roller coaster. Steel coasters have tubular steel tracks, and are known for their smooth ride and often convoluted shapes that frequently turn riders’ upside-down via inversions. Wooden coasters have flat steel tracks, and are typically renowned by enthusiasts for their rougher ride and "air time" produced by negative G-forces when the train reaches the top of hills along the ride. There are also hybrid roller coasters which combine a steel structure with flat tracks or a wooden structure with tubular tracks and a wooden roller coaster is most often classified as a roller coaster with running rails made of flattened steel strips mounted on laminated wooden track. Occasionally, the support structure may be made out of a steel lattice or truss, but the ride remains classified as a wooden roller coaster due to the track design. Because of the limits of wood, wooden roller coasters in general do not have inversions (when the coaster goes upside down), steep drops, or extremely banked turns (overbanked turns). I would prefer to ride on a steel roller coaster because to me steel coaster looks like it is more modernized that a wooden roller coaster although there are many wooden roller coasters that are modernized these days.
When I started building and designing a roller coaster using a foam tube and a marble, I was told that when building a roller coaster, I must know the laws that bind the roller coaster, the problems involved when building the coaster because the type of design I use will tell if the coaster will go perfectly on the tracks. The time I started the project, I had some difficulty in building the roller coaster because the design I used in building the roller coaster did not work especially along the loops and the hill. In a real roller coaster, an engine is used to drive the roller coaster to the top of the hill before leaving the roller coaster to go on by itself but when I did mine, I had no engine to drive the roller coaster to the top of the hill and when I put the marble at the top of the hill, the marble will roll down and when it gets to the loops, it will fall off.
The time I found the solution for the roller coaster, I found out that the best solution for the first hill is to choose the height of 80m. This will give the coaster the maximum possible energy for the rest of the ride and the best solution for the slope is to choose the hill that is curved at the bottom because this path will give the thrill without the danger of the sharper hill shapes. The curve at the bottom end gently into the next path. The exit path should be a long flat path since the coaster is travelling fast, it will safely travel over it and the loop should be an elliptical loop because it will give the coaster the maximum energy for the rest of the ride and will allow the coaster to reach the top of the second hill. The elliptical shaped loop will be fun and will avoid the dangerous effects of a circular loop, which can’t be yet safely done. I found out that the next hill’s height should be 70m, since the coasters is travelling fast, it will be able to climb the hill safely.
Building roller coaster is fun because when I was writing about roller coasters, I never thought that I would be building one as a project until my physics teacher said that my group will be building a roller coaster with foam tubes and a marble. I really enjoyed building roller coasters with my group. The best solution is to choose a first hill height of 80m and a second hill height of 70m and the elliptical loop. This will give my roller coaster the maximum possible energy for the rest of the ride, and will allow the coaster to reach the top of the second hill and it will be fun for those that are riding it.