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ZOOM™ ZOOMsci: Science rocks! |
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Roller Coaster next ZOOMsci | ZOOMsci index | list of activities | Your Results Sent in by: Kirsten W. of Kensington, MD Make a marble loop-de-loop on a track that you design. Materials needed:
Instructions: 1. Build a roller coaster using a marble, oak tag, tape, books, and a cup. 2. Cut the oak tag into strips that are 2 inches wide and 11 inches long. 3. Tape these strips together to make your roller coaster track. The marble will be the cart that travels along the track. 4. You can use the books to build hills and ramps (or you can use a staircase). 5. You get 3 points for each U-turn, 5 points for each loop, and 1 point each time you make the marble go up a hill. 6. If you can get the marble to fly through the air and land in a cup, you earn an extra ten points. How did you build your coaster and how did it work? How many points did your roller coaster have? What did you have to do to make the ball go faster or slower? How did you make the ball turn? How did you get the marble to land inside the cup? If a life-sized version of your roller coaster was built, would you want to ride it? Use our ZOOMsci feedback form to tell us about your design. And, while you're at it, c'mon and send a new experiment for others to try! You can also send us your pictures or video of this ZOOMsci: ZOOMsci ZOOM Box 350 Boston, MA 02134 Some of your results: Heather, age 10 of Reno, NV wrote: I tried it with little boxes, a marble, and tape. I taped the boxes together. I made a roller coaster shape and let the marble go. Clayton, age 9 of Bath, MI wrote: I made it do a inline twist and got in a cup. If you dont know what a inline twist is its a twist it was cool!!! Im going to make a real roller coaster in my yard! Clayton, age 9 of Bath, MI wrote: I nade my roller coaster out of card bord tubes. I made 1 u turn and made it land in a cup. It was so cooooooooool!!! I am going to make a real roller coaster in my back yard! Im so happy. Ann, age 11 of Carrollton, TX wrote: When I tried the roller coaster with a tennis ball the oak tag had to increase. The tennis ball went fine until the curves. It would juss fall off the roller coaster. I had to make more hills and ramps with the books taking place of the curves. Instead of using oak tag I used plastic cups. The marbles went faster that way. I am actully testing it out for my science fair project with different types of marbles. I changed the materials and the size of everything on the roller coaster. It works really good. I love it! Jonathan, age 11 of Franklin, TN wrote: Well, I didn't have any oak tag but paper worked fine. O. K. I had a ramp from the foot of my bed that went down to a chair where it leveled out then did a loop (the kind that looks like a standing O) then curved and went down to the floor where it leveled out again then slightly sloped upward on to three books about 3/4" thick then quickly descended, leveled out, then ascended to a little hole which the marble had to drop through. An, age 10 of Greenville, SC wrote: I relized when I built a rollercoaster, the more loops and hills and turns I made my car slowed down. It took about 2 hours each day for 2 weeks before I finally got it working. I love it!!! Jacob, age 12 of Watertown, WI wrote: My rolercoaster scored me 59 points can you match what I did? T.J., age 11 of Blthe, GA wrote: When I made my roller coaster, I used posterboard. It work great. Mine was not that long but it still had alout of speed. I had 5 u turs and 2 loopdeyloops. For the start of my rollercoaster, I used a sprite bottel with the bottom cut off. Jenny, age 11 of Holland, MI wrote: When I did the roller coaster it turned out so good! My friend and I did it down our staircase! It was so much fun!! Derek, age 10 of Maspeth, NY wrote: At first it was hard when I made 20 turns like a tornado and then a relly big big loop which the marple made it. Noah, age 8 of Canton, MI wrote: We didn't have oak tag, so we used a cardboard tube. We made a ramp out of books. The marble went down the tube, up the ramp and into the cup. William, age 7 of VA Beach, VA wrote: At first it kept falling off. And then it worked very well. but then... A piece of tape cut the marble off course. The roller coaster looked like it was going down a chair and to a cup. Michele, age 10 of Randolph, NJ wrote: My friends and I were watching the Zoom shaow and we sae the roller coaster experiment. Since we had nothing to do, we built our own marble rolleer coaster. We used oak tag, masking tape, and a lot of marbles. We used the same technique as the zoomers did. It took us a long time to finish. When we finished, we put a marble on the roller coaster beginning and it started to roll. What a success! It worked! We were so happy. We kept on rolling the marble on the the roller coaster all day. We had a lot of fun. Kim, age 10 of MA wrote: When I did it with the oak tag it collapsed, but when I did it with the Knex, it worked. Carlos, age 13 of CA wrote: When saw you guys on TV doing I though it would be really easy but I was really WRONG! But after I'd made it was really fun. Julia & Her Classmates, age 9 of CA wrote: Two of my classmates tried it. They tried four times and couldn't do it because the marble kept on catching on a piece of tape in a tunnel. Max, age 9 of IN wrote: When I tried this I made it go down my steps and fly off the banister hit the wall and go in a cup. It worked!!! Max & Dustin, age 9 of IN wrote: When we tried it it went down the banaster rail and ramped off into a cup. Taylor, age 9 of OH wrote: The roller coater wasn't sturdy enough and didn't work. Jared, age 6 of MN wrote: It was fun. BUT... IT BROKE. Kimya, age 10 of SC wrote: It went faster when I builted it higher.
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