energy....?

Question

when going down a hill, is potential energy converted to kinetic energy or is that the other way around?

and how does conservation of energy relate to roller coasters?

Answer 1

Rolling down hill is turning potential energy into kinetic energy as you said.

Conservation of energy relates to a roller coaster ride. going down a hill gains enough kinetic energy to be able to convert the kinetic energy into the potential energy gained by climbing the next hill. The reason the hills can not be the same height is that friction converts some of the energy into heat.

Answer 2

When going down a hill yes gravitational potential energy is converted into kinetic energy. It relates to roller coasters because the same energy is in the roller coaster, it only depends on whether it is stored as kinetic or gravitational potential energy. This means that at any point the roller coaster has the same amount of energy as it started with, if we account that all forms of energy loss are negligible, which we would have to in these types of questions.