Inquiry and Constructivism: Acceleration is a change in velocity...

In yesterday's class and blog post I described how changes in velocity can be a lot of fun especially at amusement parks. We continued that theme today by examining some specific examples. A lot of the students in the class have ridden the Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point, Ohio. This roller coaster once held the fastest and tallest category.

We know the Top Thrill Dragster uses a catapult system to launch the train to 200 km/h in 4 seconds from being at a complete rest or 0 km/h. How fast does the Top Thrill accelerate?

Video is from YouTube.

With the information above we can calculate the acceleration of the train as it leaves the station and approaches the hill. Unlike conventional coasters, Top Thrill does not have a lift hill. We can calculate the acceleration of the train on the coaster using the following equation and method:

So the Top Thrill Dragster travels away from the station going 14 m/s faster per each second. That is a fast ride!

In class we also looked at the acceleration of jet aircraft as they start from a stop at the runway. For planes to takeoff, they must quickly accelerate down the runway to reach take off velocity. From the pilot's point of view, the acceleration is very apparent because of the increasing speed of the hash marks moving past the aircraft. We also looked at negative acceleration for planes landing. The video used in class included this KLM-747 takeoff and landing from a small island airport.