Climbing the steps generates potential energy, which is converted to kinetic energy when you descend the slide. A higher slide has greater potential energy than a shorter slide. On a water slide, your body, sometimes in conjunction with a mat or raft, serves as the roller-coaster vehicle. As you climb the steps, your body moves from top to bottom, creating more friction between your body and the steps, thereby slowing you down. As you reach the top of the slide, you stop moving because there's no longer any room for you to go further. This is called equilibrium. At this point, the force acting on you due to gravity is equal to the force pulling you up the slide. If you were to stand still at the top of the slide, you would be falling backwards because gravity would be pulling you down faster than you can jump off the end of the slide. If you were to run up the steps instead of walking up them, the energy required to climb the steps would be less than if you were to walk up them. Running up the steps also gives you more time to enjoy the ride down! Climbing stairs is similar to riding a bike. You need to pedal hard to get up the first part of the slide, but once you reach the top, you can coast down to the bottom.