Physics Commons^™

Roller Coaster Acceleration, Olivia Briggs

Honors Program Theses and Projects

In classical mechanics, Newton’s Second Law (NSL) is often used when talking about acceleration. NSL states that the acceleration of an object is directly related to the net force and inversely related to its mass. It can be written as F~ = m~a. This concept can be applied to many real life situations, one of them being roller coasters. Passengers on roller coasters can accelerate in all directions. Some accelerations are due to gravity while others are due to launch systems that apply a mechanical force to a train. Roller coasters are often described by how many G forces riders …