• Introduction
• Lesson
• Try it!
• Review & Tasks

Go to Build Your Own Roller Coaster and design your own roller coaster. Follow the instructions to “drag” different types of track to the complete the circuit. After you complete the track, “submit your coaster” for an analysis of your ride. Try and build at least three different rides and write down the comments you receive on the analysis.

 

Solve the problems below, showing all work. Remember that the formula for calculating kinetic energy is:

KE = ½mv²

and the formula for calculating poential energy is:

GPE = mgh

1. A 500 kg coaster car is raised 50 m to the top of the ride. What is the gravitational potential energy of the car?

2. The same coaster car is released to go down the track. If there were no friction, what is its kinetic energy at the bottom of the hill?

3. What is the kinetic energy of the 500 kg car if it is going 20 m/s?

4. What is the kinetic energy of a 0.2 kg baseball thrown at 46 m/s? (a one hundred mile per hour fastball).

5. What is the kinetic energy of a 30 kg person walking at 2 m/s?

Submit your work to the 2.02 Kinetic Energy Dropbox.