My teacher gave us a packet pertaining to the physics of roller coasters because
ID: 1752171 • Letter: M
Question
My teacher gave us a packet pertaining to the physics of roller coasters because we went on a six flags trip. The first question asks for the maximum velocity at the bottom of a hill in m/s (ignore friction), the maximum velocity at the bottom of a hill in mph (ignore friction), the average speed in m/s, and the average speed in mph of teh "Batwing" (a roller coaster). Here are the statistics for the Batwing: Drop height- 115 ft (35.1 m); Track length- 3340 ft (1018.0 m); Ride Time- 2:20 (min:sec); and Top speed- 50 mph. It says to use the conservation of energy to predict the velocity at the bottom of the first hill (Vmax) while ignoring friction. I do not understand how to predict the velocity of at the bottom of the first hill or how to calculate the average speed.Explanation / Answer
You don't have sufficient numbers - it seems - so try pickingsome. Assume that the mass of the car is 100 kg You're given the height as 35.1 m Therefore the PE of the car = weight * height = 3510 Joules. At the bottom, ALL the PE is converted into KE. KE = 1/2 mv2 Just substitute the values we calculated for PE in the KE equationand you can calculate V. Actually the weight makes no difference. You can say that M.H = 0.5M.V2 And dividing both sides by M gives H = 0.5 V2 OK? The average speed is given by speed = total distance / total time.Just plug in the numbers. Don't forget to convert the units or your answers will benonsense... hours and minutes must be in decimal hours. You canlook up the metric conversion factors on the Web.
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