How does centripital Acceleration relate to bumper cars and rollercoasters?

Question

My partner and I are working on a physics project which deals with Ac and we need to explain how they are related. Can you help best answer get 10 points.

Answer 1

The conversion of potential energy to kinetic energy is what drives the roller coaster, and all of the kinetic energy you need for the ride is present once the coaster descends the first hill..

Once you're underway, different types of wheels help keep the ride smooth. Running wheels guide the coaster on the track. Friction wheels control lateral motion (movement to either side of the track). A final set of wheels keeps the coaster on the track even if it's inverted. Compressed air brakes stop the car as the ride ends.

Newton's third law of motion comes into play on the bumper cars. This law, the law of interaction, says that if one body exerts a force on a second body, the second body exerts a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction on the first body. It's the law of action-reaction, and it helps to explain why you feel a jolt when you collide with another bumper car.

When bumper cars collide, the drivers feel a change in their motion and become aware of their inertia. Though the cars themselves may stop or change direction, the drivers continue in the direction they were moving before the collision. This is why it's important to wear a seat belt while driving a real car, since otherwise you could suffer injury being thrown forward in a collision.

The masses of the drivers also affect the collisions. A difference in mass between two bumper car riders will mean that one rider experiences more change in motion than the other (or more of a jolt). The type of collision, velocity of the cars, and mass of the individual drivers all come into play in bumper car collisions.

Good luck!

Dr. H

Answer 2

One of Newton's laws of motion says that a body at rest or in motion at some constant velocity (v = 0 is just a special case of the constant velocity) will stay that way until acted on by some force. This has to do with something called momentum = P = mv; where m is the mass (you and the bumper car) and v is the velocity of that mass.

So, according to old Newt, if your bumper car (or roller coaster car) is speeding along in a straight line at v = some constant velocity, there is no net force acting on it. Why? If there were a net force = f > 0, the velocity of that mass would be changing over time and we call that velocity change acceleration or deceleration. In math talk, if P = mv, then with a change in velocity we have dP/dt = d(mv)/dt = m dv/dt = ma. Mass m is a constant in your case; so it does not change over time.

Hot darn...f = ma when there is acceleration in the bumper or roller coaster car. Now understand velocity is both magnitude and direction. So the speed (magnitude) of your bumper car can remain fixed, but the direction can change and that constitutes a change in velocity. So there you are, with the pedal to the floor staying at the same speed; then you swerve to avoid your friend who is trying to cream you and your bumper car.

Your speed remains the same...your foot is still smashing the pedal to the floor. But your direction changes drastically. Thus, the change in velocity dv/dt > 0 and there is a force f = ma = m dv/dt > 0. That force is centripetal force...a force that acts inward towards the center of your drastic swerve. In turn, there is also an equal centrifugal force acting in an opposite direction to the centripetal force.

So centrifugal force would throw you out of the car away from the direction of turn. But since centripetal force is pushing you back towards the center of the turn, you stay there sitting in the bumper car feeling these forces pulling and pushing you all the way. And, of course, if your swerve to avoid the collision didn't work, there will be the collision forces to deal with as well.

Centripetal force can be found through the equation F = mv^2/R; where R is the radius of turn (of your swerve) and v is something called tangential velocity. At the moment you start the swerve, tangential velocity is the speed and direction your bumper car was going just when you turned the wheel.

But when the car first turns, the velocity has changed direction even if the speed is constant. That initial change in velocity is the acceleration (a) acting inward along the radius of turn R. It turns out, through math legerdomain, we can show that a = v^2/R; so the F = mv^2/R = ma where a is the acceleration inward along R due to change in the velocity v.

Same kind of thing happens with the roller coaster. But a major difference here is that both speed and direction of the velocity vector are probably changing as the car bottoms out or goes over the top.

Answer 3

A centripetal force is required to turn anything. This force pushes towards the inside of the turn with a magnitude
(mass)(speed)^2 / (turn radius).

This means that if you set your reference frame in the car (as it is natural for you to do even though this isn't an inertial frame), you experience a centrifugal acceleration (equal and opposite the centripetal acceleration on your reference frame) which pushes you to the outside of the car. If you've ever played sardines in the back seat, you feel this outside push. In the roller coaster, it means you feel heavy in a dip (centrifugal force pushes you down along with gravity) and light going over a hill (centrifugal force pushes you up, counteracting gravity).

Answer 4

do u know what is this centripetal force. it is the force which changes the direction of a revolving body in a circular motion.
so when the roller coaster or a car turns in speed then it is the centripetal force which is helping it to turn other wise it would have gone outwards in the direction of the motion at that point. it is between the centre of turning and the moving body or rather turning body.

Answer 5

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