Marble Roller Coaster Pipe Insulation

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 it s a great way to learn about how stored energy potential energy is converted into the energy of motion kinetic energy.

Marble roller coaster pipe insulation.

It was my second year teaching physics. Design and build a roller coaster for marbles to travel on. Tape the loop to the floor to hold it in place. How to build a marble roller coaster.

There will be extra points for loops and hills. During the unit on energy the book we were using frequently used roller coasters in their problems. The pipe insulation roller coaster project is one of the most enjoyable projects i ve ever used in class. 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.

I thought we could do better. Marble roller coasters are fun and easy to build. You can build a roller coaster from the foam tubes that are often used for pipe insulation. The goal of this activity is to be resourceful.

Change the height of the first hill. The foaming can be taped on the wall using masking tape and moved around to make a roller coaster. This project has a few things that help this work. Imagine you are a roller coaster engineer and must design a new roller coaster.

So i wanted to know how much pipe insulation should i give to each team and what materials should be given to give support to the rollercoaster. Curl one end of a piece of pipe insulation into a loop roughly 1 foot in diameter. Foam pipe insulation 1 5 inches in diameter at least 6 feet in length or more if you would like to eventually add more features to your roller coaster at least one glass marble or other. Enjoy the videos and music you love upload original content and share it all with friends family and the world on youtube.

Make sure tape is not blocking the inside of the channel it s ok to tape have tape on the inside just make sure it is pressed flat and will not block the marble.