Marble Roller Coaster Project

Create the longest track possible without letting the marble fall off.

Marble roller coaster project.

Ideal for rapid redesigning and exploring the conversion of potential energy to kinetic energy and momentum. Roller coasters rely on two types of energy to operate. Gravity also make this work. The roller coaster is a great demonstration of the law of conservation of energy.

This is a fun project that kids will love and can also learn some science. Get the lesson plan and project sheet for this activity step 1. Abstract this is a really fun project even if you don t like going on roller coasters yourself. The marble roller coaster is an open ended challenge.

In an isolated system such as the roller coaster the total energy remains constant. I d like to note that the concept for this project is not my own but the building and teaching techniques are. One of them is one of newton s laws of motion that says that an object in motion will stay in motion and an object in rest will stay in rest. This project has a few things that help this work.

You ll build a roller coaster track for marbles using foam pipe insulation and masking tape and see how much of an initial drop is required to get the marble to loop the loop. This project reaches a wide span of grade ranges from k 12. Marble roller coasters are fun and easy to build. Gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy.