Physics Principles that Can be Observed in a Theme Park

Physics Principles that Can be Observed in a Theme Park

Introduction

Physics is a large subject that can be observed almost everywhere,

even in a theme park, in a theme park physics principles such as

‘weightlessness’ and ‘acceleration/deceleration’ play a large part in

ensuring that the rides are as thrilling as they are safe. In this

essay I am going to show how two certain physics principles are being

used in a ride to ensure that the ride is safe but at the same time

delivers a lot of thrill to the rider. I am going to explore the sense

of ‘weightlessness’ during freefall, and how ‘forces’ are used to

ensure that the ride is not dangerous, I will also mention how

gravitational potential energy converts to kinetic energy as the ride

drops.

Physics principles

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Weightlessness

Freefall is a term used to describe how an object is moving through

the air when there are practically no forces other than gravity acting

on them. During freefall, object experience a sense of

‘weightlessness’, but weightlessness does not mean that an object

loses all its weight. Since in Physics ‘weight’ does not mean how

heavy an object is, (that is known as the ‘mass’) ‘weight’ is a term

used to describe how much force and object is exerting due to gravity,

weight can only be felt if there is another force opposing the

direction of the weight, as stated by NewtonÂ’s laws of motion that

‘all forces have a resistant force that is equal to and in the

opposite direction of the forceÂ’, on earth the resistant force is

delivered by the ground beneath our feet, so if the ground was taken

away, as in freefall, there would be no resistant force and we would

not experience weight, that is what is meant by the term

‘weightlessness’. This is used in the ride I am going to study to

create the feeling to falling into a pit and thus creating a thrill.

Stopping forces

Another physics principle I am going to explore is the use of forces