1

INFORMAL LEARNING CONTEXT:

AMUSEMENT PARK





SUBMITTED ON
25.08.2014


SUBMITTED TO SUBMITTED BY
Mrs. LINIMOL K.S DEEPA KRISHNAN
PHYSICAL SCIENCE TUTOR PHYSICAL SCIENCE
SNTC POOCHAKKAL REG NO: 13383010(182)
SNTC POOCHAKKAL



2

INDEX
Sl.No CONTENTS Page no.
I INTRODUCTION 3
II AMUSEMENT PARK RIDES AND PHYSICS 4
1) BUMPER CARS 5-6
2) CAROUSEL 7
3) FREE FALL 8-9
4) PENDULUM 10-11
5) ROLLER COASTER 12-13
III CONCLUSION 14
IV REFERENCE 15


3



INTRODUCTION

SCIENCE is the word of modern age. It is an inseparable
part of modern life. Science is not a human activity, without any
element of magic. Human beings are curious by nature. The curiosity of
man unveils the mysteries of nature. With the highly developed mind,
man can observe precisely, correlate the results of the observations
meaningfully and predict future happenings logically. This ability has
helped human beings to intelligently adjust to nature. They explore and
change the physical world according to their requirements. The process
of observing, describing, exploring and using the physical world is
nothing but science. So science is compounded curiosity, observation
and thought.
The world of science is interesting as well as
fascinating. Our daily life is completely doubtful to science. Most of our
experiences are based on any kind scientific concepts. Parks, museums,
historical monuments, playground, music room, planetarium, ANERT
etc arte some of informal learning contexts in physical science.
4

AMUSEMENT PARK RIDES AND PHYSICS

Amusement parks are thrilling places to spend the long day of
summer .But these are also huge physics classrooms. All of the rides are
built with these laws of physics in mind and it is playing with these
laws that make these rides so fun and scary.
The following are of the most common types of rides to see how the
force, energy types, and laws of physics are at work in amusement
parks.

Bumper cars
Carousel
Freefall rides
Pendulum rides
Rollercoaster










5

Bumper Cars
Bumper cars are a great place to see Sr.Issac Newtons three laws of
motion.
Newtons First law of motion: Every object in motion continues in
motion and every object in at arrest continues to be at rest unless an
outside force acts upon it. This is because all objects have inertia, the
property of matter that resists changes to the objects motion. Newton
found that if a ball is sitting on table, it will say sitting there because
that is what it wants to do. If the ball is in motion, it will keep
travelling in a straight path because again that is what it wants to do.
An object in motion will not stop, slow down, or changes its direction
unless an outside force acts on it. When we ride a Bumper car and end
up in a collision with another Bumper car we feel a jolt. This is because
our bodys inertia wants it to keep travelling in the direction it was
moving with the car even though Bumper car has now suddenly
stopped.
Newtons Second law of motion: The greater the mass of an object
the harder is it to change its speed. This law has more practice in
everyday life. Something that is small such as pebble is much easier to
pick up and throw than something that is large and heavy such as
boulder. When riding in the bumper car, people who weigh less tend to
get pushed around more than people who weigh more. The more mass
an object the bumper cars usually have the same top velocity, the cars
carrying more mass will never travel as far as the cars carrying less
mass after collision
Newtons Third law of motion; for every action there is an equal and
opposite reaction. If two bumper cars travelling at the same speed and
carrying the same amount of weight to run into each other they will
bounce off and moves an equal distance away from each other. And
based on the second law of motion, if there is difference in the amount
6

of weight being carried in two cars, the car with less weight will travel
farther away from the point of impact than the car carrying more
weight.














7

Carousel
Imagine a spinning ball on a string .The ball is travelling in a circular
path. But Newtons first law states that an object in motion stays in
motion and that motion is in a straight path, not a circular path. Since
the ball is travelling in a circular path, an outside force must be acting
on the ball. That force is on the string. The string is pulling the ball
backward, acting as centripetal force. Centripetal means, center
seeking and is the force that is acting on Carousel. The platform upon
which the horses and people are riding is the centripetal force that
keeps them travelling in a circular motion just as string was the
centripetal force for the ball. As long as the ride is moving slowly
enough the centripetal force of the platform can keep everyone and
everything on aboard.
In theory, if the carousel stars moving really fast centripetal
force takes over and breaks the hold the platform had on the rides and
the riders would fly off.
Centrifugal force is actually not a real force, if the centripetal force
that pulls an object into the centre stops working the n it is the objects
inertia that takes over and sends the object travelling in straight path. I
the centrifugal force was a real one, the ball would move straight away
from the center at the point where the string was to go. But it doesnt
.instead the ball follows its path of inertia and moves in a straight path
that is tangent to the circular path.




8

Free Fall
Potential energy $ Kinetic energy
In all free fall rides, motors are used to take the car and the
passengers to the top of a tower, highlighting potential energy as they
reach the top. Potential energy is stored energy and has the capability
to become working energy. When the tower is released, the potential
energy is turned into kinetic energy (the energy of action) as the gravity
pulls the car and passengers break down to the earth. However no
matter what an object weighs, all objects fall at the same rate, so both
the men and car are falling at the same speed giving the person feeling
of weightlessness.
Now the people may be fooled into thinking that the car is falling
faster than it normally would. If gravity was the only acting force (the
ride makers are using motors to make the car fall faster). After all we
feel our self that being pressed against the bars and straps holding you
in as soon as the car dropped. But it is to be noted that, our body has
inertia and wants to stay at rest, as does the car you sitting in. The
mechanism suspending the car at the top of the tower is holding the car,
not you. When the mechanism that is suspending the car lets goes,
there is a slight delay of your body falling with the car, because our
bodys inertia wants to keep it at rest. If the same mechanism dropped
you and the car at the same time, there would be no delay of your body
falling in comparison within the car.
Although all objects do fall at the same rate no matter what their
weight or size, some objects are more likely to be affected by air
resistance than other objects. Because of their spherical shape, balls
allow air to easily move past them, with little resistance to slow them
down. Feathers and parachutes are shaped to capture the air as they
fall to the ground, effectively with little air resistance to slow them
9

down. In vacuum all objects always fall at the same speed since there is
no effect of air resistance.


















10


Pendulum
Pendulums rides are a little like the swing sets we might
remember from our childhood. Swings give us a feeling of flying in a
controlled manner. We pump our legs to provide enough force to
increase the height of the swing's arc, and enjoy the increased velocity
of the downward swing. When we stop pumping, the swing gradually
slows and then stops.
Riders often experience near-weightlessness as they approach the
top of a pendulum ride. If the ride is the type that makes a complete
360-degree circle, they experience a feeling of complete weightlessness.
Feelings of weightlessness are not due to a decrease in forces of
gravitation; people do not feel forces of gravity. What one feel is the
force of a seat (or other external object) pushing on body with a force to
counteract gravity's downward pull. A 180-pound person at rest in his
office chair experiences the seat pushing upwards on his body with a
force of 180 pounds. Yet at the top of a pendulum ride, the same 180-
pound person will feel less than this normal sensation of weight. At the
very top of the pendulum ride, riders begin to fall out of their seats.
Since a 180-pound person is no longer in full contact with his seat, the
seat is no longer pushing on him with 180 pounds of force. Thus, the
rider has a sensation of weighing less than his normal weight.
As riders pass through the bottom of the circular arc, they often
experience high g-forces. Once again, these g-forces are not evidence of
increasing forces of gravitation, but the result of increases in the
amount of force applied by the seat upon their bodies. Understanding
this demands a little information about circular motion.
11

The motion of an object in a circle requires that there be a force
directed toward the center of the circle (sometimes called a "centripetal
force"). This means that at the bottom of the circular swing, there must
be an upward force (since the circle's center is upward). Gravitational
forces are always directed downward upon a rider's body; thus,
gravitational forces cannot meet this centripetal force requirement. The
seat must supply the centripetal force, pushing upwards on the rider
with a force greater than gravity's downward pull. For a 180-pound
person, the seat might have to supply 360 pounds of upward pull. This
is twice the usual amount experienced by our 180-pound rider. For this
reason, we would say the rider experiences 2 g's of force (a seat force
that is 2 times the gravity.







12




Roller coaster
Putting it all together
Roller coasters are the perfect place to see all these laws, force and
energies at work. Roller coasters are not powered by motors the entire
way along the ride. In fact most roller coasters are only pulled up to the
top of the first hill the highest point of the entire ride. Its entire tip
relies solely on the potential energy that has gained by the position at
the top of the hill. Then further a roller coaster climbs a hill, the greater
a distance there is for gravity to pull it down. When the roller coaster
comes down, its potential energy is converted into kinetic energy. When
the roller coaster comes down a hill and starts its way up a new hill, the
kinetic energy changes back to its potential energy until it is released
again when the coaster travels down the hill it just climbed.
Gravity and inertia are big players when it comes to how you
experience the ride. The force of gravity is measured in gravitational
forces. Most of the time you are experiencing 1g the normal force
gravity exerts on you. However motor can change how you experience
the force of gravity when the cars are travelling up the hills. You feel
heavier because your inertia wants you to stay behind and more gravity
forces are exerted on you. So, if a ride states that it exerts 3g forces ,
then you will feel like you weigh 3 times more than you really do while
13

riding on the ride. Alternatively, when the car travels down the hills
you feel weightless because you are falling with the car and are
experiencing 0g forces.
When loops and twists are built in the track, track becomes the
centripetal force that keeps the cars and passengers moving in a
circular path. The inertia of the passengers, which wants them to travel
in a straight line, moves the passengers feel like they are being pressed
into their seats while travelling through the loop. When a coaster goes
up a loop on a hill it must comes down, because for every action there is
an equal and opposite reaction. And if there is not enough force or speed
to overcome, roller coaster cannot make its way through the entire
course of its track.
Roller coasters can be wooden or steel, and can be looping or no
looping. You'll notice a big difference in the ride depending on the type
of material used. In general, wooden coasters are no looping. They're
also not as tall and not as fast, and they don't feature very steep hills or
as long a track as steel ones do. Wooden coasters do offer one advantage
over steel coasters, assuming you're looking for palm-sweating thrills:
they sway a lot more. Tubular steel coasters allow more looping, higher
and steeper hills, greater drops and rolls, and faster speeds.








14







CONCLUSION


A Science student should be a good observer. He could always search
for truths. Science is knowledge acquired in particular way. It becomes
a human activity, an attitude and an exercise of the mind that puts us
as it were in a state of familiarity with nature.
As already said, whatever we experience in daily life situation is
linked to science ion one or another way. If a student is interested in
learning science through experience and observation it will give him a
strong knowledge. Amusement parks and museums are such informal
learning context which indirectly teaches science to everyone.

15

REFERENCE

www.learner/org/exhibits/parkphysics
www.hometrainingtools.com/a/amusement-park-physics
www.real-world-physics-problem.com/amusement-park-
physics