how to make a roller coaster

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If you've e'er been on a roller coaster, you lot know how fun and heady they are. They tin as well teach yous a lot near how objects apply energy to move. You lot tin build your own mini marble roller coaster using simple materials like popsicle sticks, aluminum foil, and a Styrofoam base. The style you lot design the coaster is up to you, so get creative and challenge yourself to make your ride as fun, fast, and safe equally possible!

1
Draw at least 1 pattern in your notebook. Before you offset building your roller coaster, catch your notebook and sketch some ideas. As you're drawing, think about how it would experience to ride your roller coaster in real life.
- Your goal is to pattern a roller coaster that'due south both fun and safe to ride!
2
Include one or more hills that are at to the lowest degree 6 inches (xv cm) high. High hills are an important part of any fun roller coaster. Your coaster tin can have more than 1 hill, but plan to make at least one of them six inches (xv cm) or taller.
- A truthful loma needs both an upward and a downward slope. A alpine downwards ramp or slide with no slope leading up to it doesn't count! You tin can include both hills and ramps in your design, though.
- Think about how you'll go the marble moving. What will it have to go it going up a steep hill?
Did yous know? When an object like a marble or a roller coaster auto is at the top of a high hill, it has lots of potential energy—that is, energy that comes from its position. This free energy comes from the force of gravity, which can pull the object down to the footing. In one case the object starts moving, that potential energy turns into kinetic energy. ^[i]

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iii
Design a method to proceed your marble on the track. A roller coaster where the riders tin can fly off the track isn't very safe. As you're creating your design, think well-nigh features you can build in to keep your marble where it belongs.
- For example, would information technology help to give your track high walls or railings? Tin can you create some sort of gutter or safety internet to grab the marble in instance information technology falls off?
- Try to guess which parts of the track are possible danger zones. Do you think your marble is more likely to fly off runway going uphill or downhill? What about at curves in the track?
iv
Plan a mode to terminate your marble at the end of the track. This is another important safety feature for your roller coaster. What tin you lot add to the end of your track to keep the marble from merely rolling away?
- For example, what if y'all put a barrier at the end of the runway? How tin you prevent the marble from bouncing over the barrier?
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1
Make a base using the polystyrene board. In one case you lot're ready to build your roller coaster, you'll need a proficient foundation to support it. Utilise your foam board as a base of operations to ballast the upright pieces of your roller coaster, like the sticks that volition aid concord upward the runway.
- If you want, y'all can use your pencil or a marker to marking on the board where you lot desire to put dissimilar parts of the track.
2
Utilize popsicle sticks and skewers to support your track. To brand those tall ramps and hills, you lot'll need some sturdy upright pieces to hold upward your track. Experiment with dissimilar ways to infinite out these pieces and make them stand up up.
- For case, y'all could push the sticks into the foam board, or create clay "anxiety" to assist them stand up.
- Do some parts of the track need actress back up? How tin you make your support pieces shorter or taller?
- Remember, you need at least i hill to be six inches (fifteen cm) loftier or taller, so utilise your measuring tape or ruler to check the acme of your hills.
3
Build your rails out of aluminum foil. Take the sections of foil and utilize them to create segments of track, so attach them to your support construction using tape. Call back, you'll need to build the track and then that the marble can stay on it without falling off easily!
- Does it help to use longer or shorter pieces of foil for some parts of the rails?
- Practise you recall the pieces of your track are sturdy enough to agree up the marbles? What can you lot do to make them stronger?
4
Get creative and experiment with your other materials. Retrieve about interesting ways you can use your other materials, like the Model Magic dirt, pipe cleaners, and record. Can you use whatsoever of these materials to brand your track and support structure stronger? What about building safety features for your rails?
- For example, maybe yous could use pieces of dirt to back up lower bumps or hills on your track, or construct a safety net for your marble to autumn into using pipe cleaners.
5
Test the track as you're building information technology to make sure it works. As you create the different segments of your track, endeavor sending the marble through to see if it works the way yous want it to. If not, y'all can make adjustments to your design before building the next part.
- For case, if you've simply built a big hill, try sending your marble over it. Does it accept any trouble getting up the colina? What can you do to give information technology a better running offset?
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1
Experiment with different ways of launching your marble. Depending on how you lot made your runway, your marble might need a picayune help to become started. See what happens if you simply set it on the runway and allow information technology go, or effort giving it a push.
- How is this different from a real roller coaster? How is it the same?
Did you know? Real roller coasters rely on potential and kinetic energy to piece of work, just like your Rolling Roller Coaster model! The cars that the riders sit in don't need engines to scroll around the track. Only they do need a lilliputian aid to get started.^[2] How practise the cars climb the first hill on the roller coaster?
2
Time how long information technology takes for your marble to cease the track. Use a stopwatch or a watch that shows seconds to check how long it takes for your marble to run the whole runway, from launch to terminate. Does information technology go fast enough to consummate the rails in 10 seconds or fewer?
- Information technology can exist helpful to have someone else hit the timer while you start the roller coaster.
- If you lot don't accept a stopwatch, try counting in "alligators" to count the seconds. If you say "alligator" after each number ("1 alligator, two alligator," and so on), it volition take you about 10 seconds to get to x.
3
Observe where the marble goes the fastest or slowest. You lot might discover that in some parts of the track, your marble goes faster or slower. Where does it ordinarily speed up or slow down? Which part of your rail practise yous think is the fastest?
- For example, does your marble become faster when it's going uphill, or downhill? What well-nigh bends in the track?
4
Investigate means you could make your marble go faster. If y'all're non satisfied with the speed of your roller coaster, think about things you lot could exercise to get in fifty-fifty faster. Would it assist to make some parts of the rails college or lower? What about making the track longer or shorter? What if you changed the mode you launched your marble?
- Once you come up with an idea, put information technology to the test! Attempt making adjustments to your rail and see what happens.
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Things You lot'll Need

Scissors
Notebook
Pencil
Measuring tape
Roll of masking tape
Polystyrene canvass, ten by x by ane inches (25.4 by 25.four by two.five cm)
x sheets of aluminum foil
10 popsicle sticks
10 wooden skewers
half-dozen pipe cleaners
Markers
Model Magic clay
Marble

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Commodity Summary Ten

To brand your own rolling roller coaster, first get a piece of foam board to employ equally a sturdy base. Then, cutting popsicle sticks in half and tape them between skewers to make the supports for your roller coaster. Stick the supports into the cream board. Now, fold up pieces of aluminum foil to make the tracks for your roller coaster, and rest the tracks on the supports. You can create inclines, steep drops, and even upside-downward loops using the tracks. Decorate your roller coaster with clay, pipe cleaners, and other craft supplies. When yous're finished, examination out your roller coaster by dropping a marble on the rail and watching information technology roll downwards to the very cease. For tips on how to design your rolling roller coaster, keep reading!

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