Not everyone enjoys the thrilling experience of a roller coaster ride. Theorize and discuss the scientific, physiological, psychological, and sociological reasons for why some seek such thrills and others avoid them. The trip to school on the bus is not supposed to be as thrilling as a ride on a roller coaster, but in many ways you experience the same energy transitions at a slower rate. Make a list of such rides and explain where in the ride the GPE and the KE are the greatest. Some of the best rides give us the illusion of weightlessness for short periods of time.
Students can design and conduct experiments and demonstrations to back up their explanations.
I Almost Puked Nick Cook. Carolrhoda Books, 1998. Roller Coasters Mike Schafer and Scott Rutherford. MBI Publishing, 1998. Included are the location, length, age, and features of each.