Roll ‘n’ Roller Coaster
Roller coasters are one of the most thrilling ways to feel engineering in action! In this activity, students act as mechanical, civil, and structural engineers as they design and build a roller coaster with their teammates that allows a table tennis ball to roll through the entire model unassisted. As students design and build their roller coaster, they will learn about kinetic and potential energy. Students explain that when the ball is placed at the top of the ramp, it has potential energy (stored energy). Once the ball is released, the potential energy is changed into kinetic energy (energy of motion). Students also identify the role that friction plays in stopping the ball. As students experience the engineering design process and create multiple iterations of their design, they will discover the key to allow the table tennis ball to gain enough momentum to cycle through the roller coaster unassisted is to create an initial slope that’s steep enough to allow the ball to cycle through.
Students sketch their design and build their projects.Copyright 2022 Binta Moncur, University of Florida MRET
Roller coaster engineers typically work with a team of mechanical, civil, and structural engineers. Mechanical engineers design the roller coasters and spend time calculating safety and performance and supervising construction. Civil and structural engineers build, test, and maintain infrastructure. Mechanical engineers work closely with civil and structural engineers. Together they plan the layout for the roller coaster which takes about 10 months to build.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Explain how kinetic and potential energy are related to the movement of the ball through the roller coaster.
- Discuss how gravity affects the movement of the ball and what causes the ball to stop.
- Relate the steepness of angles in a roller coaster to how fast/slow the roller coaster travels.
- Identify areas for improvement and create future iterations based on those observations.