Website 1: How Roller Coasters Work!

 

How does a roller coaster work? Why don't you fall off? This is a really neat website that tells you how everyday things in your life work. In the link below, the authors describe the physics necessary for roller coasters.

How Stuff Works: Roller Coasters

Read a couple of pages and see if you can pick out some terms that we have talked about in class. Think about your favorite roller coaster (or one that looks like fun). What could you do to it to make it better? Is this physically possible?

Harris, T. (n.d.). How Roller Coasters Work. Retrieved from http://science.howstuffworks.com/ 

     engineering/structural/roller-coaster1.htm 

Video 1: Angry Birds in Space

As Newton has discovered, gravity is a pretty interesting thing... It is what keeps us here on earth. It is also responsible for creating what we call a trajectory (the curve a ball follows when it is thrown horizontally). You have also seen this when you play your Angry Birds game. What happens when we don't have gravity? In this video, astronaut Don Pettit describes what happens to the trajectory of an object (an Angry Bird) in space.

Llewellyn, A. (2012, March 8). Angry birds in space [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://open.nasa.gov/ 

     blog/2012/03/08/angry-birds-space/ 

Book 1: Newton and Me

So, I know this book looks like it is for a much younger crowd - It is! But, the principles are still the same. In this book, a little boy and his dog, Newton, explore their world through the eyes of physics... Whether they are pulling a wagon, throwing a ball, or riding a bike, they soon realize that physics is all around them. This is a very quick read, but a great introduction to the concepts we will be investigating.

Go to this link:

Newton and Me 

Mayer, L. (2010). Newton and me. Sylvan Dell Publishing.

Article 1: Zero-Gravity Roller Coaster

This is a really interesting article on the possibility of constructing a zero-gravity roller coaster! Can you imagine being weightless for 8 whole seconds? How does this relate to our studies of Newton's laws of motion? What are some design challenges that the engineer should address?

Austen, B. (2012). A roller coaster that will leave you weightless for 8 seconds. Popular Science, 280(2), 52-53. 

Go to this link: 

Zero-Gravity Roller Coaster

Unit of Study

Physics: Laws of Motion and Electricity

Grade 11

In this unit, we will be studying displacement, velocity, acceleration and Newton's Laws of Motion. What forces do you think are working in the roller coaster pictured?

Another unit we will be studying is actually very closely related to Newton's Laws: Electricity! Afterall, how would a roller coaster work without power?