How Rollercoasters Are Able To Move?

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Recommended: Summary of physics behind roller coaster

Have you ever wondered how roller coasters are able to move? Roller coasters don't have engines to make them move after the first hill. In order for the car to reach the top of that e hill, the car has to be pulled up by a rope or wire of some sort hooked to a motor. The roller coasters use energy instead of an engine to help the car move. Once the car has reached the top of the hill the car has built up potential energy. When the car is going down the hill the potential energy changes to kinetic energy which allows the car to accelerate. The cars accelerate due to gravity and they are slowed down by rolling friction. Gravity also slows them down as they go uphill. Roller coasters are being used around the world right now.The first successful roller coaster was Coney Island. This roller coaster was earning $600 a day in 1884. After the first roller coaster was invented, many people started to create more roller coasters just like Coney Island. Many people also began to create new ways to make roller coasters.
The first roller coaster to go upside down was called Hades 360. It was the first of it’s kind. The …show more content…

Japan’s worst amusement park disaster was the Fujin Raijin II roller coaster. Cars were derailed and went flying off the tracks. A nineteen year old student was killed and nineteen others were injured. A broken axle caused the derailment. None of the rides axles had been replaced for fifteen years. The Haunted Castle at Six Flags Great America burst into flames. The wind whipped flames to over 2,000 degrees turning the interior into a raging inferno. Most of the people inside the castle escaped safely, but eight teenagers became trapped and died in the blaze. This accident holds the record for the worst number of deaths ever recorded for a roller coaster

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