Physics Help Forum Roller Coaster Physics: From a dumb graduate student who forgot all his education
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 Jul 25th 2017, 12:11 PM #1 Junior Member   Join Date: Jul 2017 Posts: 1 Roller Coaster Physics: From a dumb graduate student who forgot all his education Out of curiosity and not out of any desire to test this, would you be able to stay on a roller coaster without any restraints going around a loop? (e.g. if you came to a loop without a seatbelt, would you fall out and die)
 Jul 25th 2017, 02:38 PM #2 Physics Team     Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Morristown, NJ USA Posts: 2,344 A roller coaster on a properly designed loop will generate centripetal forces that will keep you planted in your seat even while upside down. To get technical: if the radial acceleration is greater than acceleration due to gravity then you will not fall out: $\displaystyle \frac {v^2} R \ge g$ where v = the coaster velocity at the top of the loop in m/s, g = acceleration due to gravity = 9.8 m/s^2, and R is the radius of the loop in meters. So as long as the velocity of the coaster at the top of the loop is greater than $\displaystyle \sqrt {gR}$ you'll be fine. Last edited by ChipB; Jul 25th 2017 at 02:41 PM.

 Tags coaster, dumb, education, forgot, graduate, physics, roller, roller coaster, student

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