2019 Year 12 IB Extended Essays

THE PHYSICS OF THE ROLLER COASTER

Secondary data Table 1.3 Secondary data on height of release, length and speed of some of roller coasters around the world Name and location height of release(m) inversions Length(m) Speed(m/s) Smiler (Alton towers, UK) 30 14 1170 23.6 Colossus (Thorpe Park, UK) 30 10 845 20.0 10 inversion roller coaster (Chimelong Paradise, China) 30 10 850 22.2 Crazy coaster (Loca Joy Holiday theme park, China) 33 10 875 23.6 Altair (Cinecitta world, Italy) 33 10 875 23.6 Lightspeed (Wonderland Eurasia, Turkey) 33 10 875 23.6 Velikolukskiy Myasokombinat-2 (Wonder Island, Russia) 33 10 875 23.6 Steel Curtain (Kennywood, USA) 67 9 1219 33.5 Dragon Khan (Port Adventura Park) 49 8 1270 29.0 Flight of the Phoenix (Harborland, China) 31 8 830 22.2 Source: (Marden, 1996) 6. Discussion Primary data: Referring to graphs 1.1 and 1.2, as the height of release increases, the maximum radius of a

loop the ball can circulate increases. We can see that in graph 1.1, the maximum, minimum

and the average trendline have positive gradients which illustrates that the relationship is

positive. In graph 1.2, at a height of 30 cm, the ball can complete a loop with a radius 4.5 cm

whereas at 50 cm, it can circulate a loop with the radius 8cm. Graph 1.2 also shows the sharp

rise of radius from the height of 30 to 50 cm but beyond 60cm, the difference between the

gradient reduced. As you can see, the difference between radii at 40cm and 50 cm is 2 cm

whereas between 60 cm and 70 cm is 1cm. This trend supports my hypothesis.

In fact, this data is from the second experiment I have done. The first experiment produced a

less refined trend due to the larger intervals between radii. For the heights below 30cm, the

ball did not have enough potential energy to complete any loops hence I did not include them.

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IB Diploma