The Whirlwind

For many years as a kid I would often go to Seabreeze Park and I enjoyed going on rides. This summer I also was able to work at Seabreeze. One of my favorite rides there has been the Whirl Wind. There is a lot of physics behind how this roller coaster works. First off as ride reaches the top of the first hill it begins to accelerate down the hill. It starts with a slower velocity and then gains speed as it goes down the hill. The twist in the ride(see what I did there) is that as the cart goes, it also spins as it travels. This now means not only is the car accelerating as it travels up and down hills, but it also has a centripetal acceleration. By squaring the velocity of the cart spinning and by dividing it be the radius of the cart, you can also determine how fast it's centripetal acceleration would be. Also, the force that the cart applies down on the tracts is equal to the force the tracks apply back onto to cart. The Whirlwind was a very fun part of childhood and it is cool to now know all of the physics involved in it!