Link+to+Lab+Report+VIII

= = = = =Conservation of Energy on a Roller Coaster= Date of Publication (Date of Most Recent Edits)


 * Participants**: JC Smith and Stephanie Robison
 * Purpose**: The purpose of this lab is to examine how mechanical energy (kinetic and potential energy) can be changed by outside forces.
 * Lab Documents**: [[file:Roller Coaster.doc]]


 * Brief Description of Experiment**: We observed the roller coaster in class and recorded data based on or observations. Our collection of data consisted of the height of the roller coaster at various points, the speed at these points, the time it took to reach these points from the first point.


 * Calculations:**
 * //Speed//

Potential Energy (of gravity)

Kinetic Energy

Mechanical Energy || The speed in meters per second was calculated by taking the measured distance in meters and dividing by the time elapsed in seconds. speed = distance / time

PE = m x g x h

KE = 1/2 (m)(v x v)

ME = PE + KE || Data: Results**: The purpose of this lab was to see how outside forces effect mechanical energy, and our results seemed to prove this. If a system is closed, with no outside forces what so ever, mechanical energy should stay the same before, and after the experiment. In this experiment we calculated mechanical energy before and after and it seemed to prove the fact that external forces will effect the mechanical energy. In this case most energy was either converted to friction or other types of energy.
 * [[image:jc_and_steph_roller_coaster.JPG width="875" height="449"]]

1. What external forces did you identify as removing energy from the roller coaster system? Into what form of energy do you think the mechanical energy was converted via these forces?
 * Lab Questions**:

People standing around would decrease the KE by stopping the cart. 2. What external forces did you identify as adding energy to the roller coaster system? From what form of energy do you think the mechanical energy was converted via these forces?

People again would contribute to an affect, but in this case they would have touched the cart and increased the KE. Also gravity could play a role in that it made the cart roll down the hill. 3. Break the motion of the coaster into 4 pieces as described below. What fraction of the total mechanical energy from the top of the coaster was lost in: 4. At what point in the motion of the roller coaster was mechanical energy being dissipated (lost from the system) most quickly with respect to distance traveled? How about with respect to time?
 * 1) The first big drop? gained energy but wasn't supposed to.
 * 2) The entrance to the loop? loses a little bit.
 * 3) The exit of the loop? loses a drastic amount.
 * 4) The back turn? loses a little ME.

Going onto the loop becasue the cart has to go up, so it's losing speed. This applies for both distance traveled and time.


 * Conclusion**:

The purpose of this lab was to observe how outside forces can affect the mechanical energy of a system. We believe that this result is valid, and could be very easily reproduced if used in the same atmosphere with the same roller coaster and cart. The main reason our results differed is because of human error, such as taking measurments or pushing the button to calculate time from each point. Simple improvements to this experiment would be to have one person timing the cart from each point, so the starting and ending times would be more consistant. //Don't forget to link to your lab report from the lab reports page and to include a link to your lab report in your reflecti//