History

The roller coaster was much different back in the 1400's in Russia. The metal tracks, the loops, and the turns you see today were just an ice cart with wooden slides on it. The seats of the cart were made with ice and had straw or fur put into chiseled hollows for passenger comfort. The cart slid on ice slides built on the mountain, some higher than 70 feet in the air. Sand was used to slow down the cart at the end of the ride using friction (when one object resists the motion of another object).

The roller coaster changed in the 1880’s. Ice and straw were replaced with wood, steel, and an iron runner so it makes the ride more intense and fast. Even with the new features there were still problems. The wheels would fall off in the middle of the ride and sometimes when the ride was supposed to end it didn't.

The first roller coaster built in America was a gravity powered mine train. After the mine shut down, the coaster became a full-time attraction. This coaster was powered by gravity. When two mules brought the coaster up the hill and let the coaster go, the gravity would kick in, and the coaster would fly down the hill. While it is going down, the cart seems to coast. That is probably why it got the name "roller coaster".

Then in 1875, a railroad company was in search of ways to keep passenger using their products on weekends, their answer was Coney Island, parks at the end of rail lines. Most of the rides were carousels until 1884 when the first gravity switch back coaster was introduce

Roller coasters evolved, and designers made loops and turns. In 1912, John Miller introduced the first under friction roller coaster. This design held the coaster train on the track and allowed more speed, steeper hills, and less drag or less friction applied on the coaster. In the 1920's some of the best roller coasters were built. One of them was the Cyclone. It was located at Coney's Island. Built in 1927 it was one of the most famous roller coasters of all time. Then in 1929 the stock market crashed, followed by the Great Depression and World War II, causing a decline in parks. In 1955, the first theme park opened: Disneyland. Not only did Disneyland help bring up the new era of amusement parks, but also it made new changes to the roller coaster. Up to this time roller coasters were made of wood and metal and limited the way a turn was handled. In 1959 Disneyland introduced the Matterhorn the first tubular steel coaster. It featured better loops, a corkscrew track, and stability, and it can be traced to the first roller coaster. All the way down to the roller coaster in Russia in the 1400’s.

The first successful inverted roller coaster was introduced in 1997 and now you can have your feet dangle freely in the air while you go down the track. Also you can go upside down while going down the track. Even today technology and the laws of physics continue to see what is possible in a roller coaster design

How it works

Roller coasters aren't pulled or run by a motor. Storing kinetic and potential energy move them. kinetic energy is the Greek word for move. The word energy combined with Kinetic means the ability to move. The greater the mass and speed the greater the amount of kinetic energy there is. As a roller coaster goes down a hill potential energy that is stored is turned to kinetic energy. Potential energy is stored energy. When you lift an object up you are exerting energy that will later become kinetic energy when you drop it. How is this done? Well when you drop the object all the potential energy is released when you go down. Since there is more kinetic energy the faster you go down the more potential energy is changed to kinetic energy. A motor lifts the coaster to the top of the first hill. Then there you have maximum potential energy. Then it lets you go down the hill. So basically the higher you are the more potential energy you have. So when you go down the hill you will have a great amount of kinetic energy.

How the roller coaster stops is a different story. Friction stops the roller coaster. When the guy who runs the roller coaster puts on the brakes, the brakes on the track prevent the roller coaster from moving any further. Since the stop is not on the top of a hill there is a great amount of kinetic energy. That makes the roller coaster skid to a stop on the track because friction caused by the brakes overwhelmed the coaster making it stop.

Another part of how a roller coaster works is its wheels. Today there are three sets of wheels. The first one is the runner wheel. It guides the coaster on the track. The second one is the friction wheel. It controls lateral movement (movement to either side). The third is a type of wheel that keeps the coaster on the track even when inverted or upside down.

Uses

A roller coaster has mainly two uses. One of the uses is for amusement. Thousands of people go to theme parks every day. Most people like roller coasters with big loops, twists, and drops. The Millennium Force has a three hundred-foot drop! That's the highest drop of all roller coasters in the United States. The other use is mining when men go deep into the Earth's crust and mine for materials like gold, silver, and diamonds. The carts make it easier to go inside and to come out with materials. Carts were set on a track then the men dig in and extend the track by adding more tracks while they go further in.

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