AP Physics performed a lab about predicting the release height of a car to make it around a loop in a roller coaster loop da loop on Nov. 12 and 13. The project aims to help students understand the process of deriving an equation to predict the minimum height to make it  through the loop then test their prediction..

“First you measure the radius of the loop,” junior Megan Nguyen said. “After you predict what you think the minimum height is, you find the real minimum height. And the minimum height is whatever the height is that gets the car to barely make it through the loop. The teacher explained it pretty well. I learned how you can graph potential energy when it starts and then at the end the kinetic energy and potential energy levels.” 

After students made their prediction using the radius of their loop, they set up their car on the track to test their prediction.

“We found that our minimum height was much larger than our prediction,” senior Roshni Soundharrajan said. “ It was an easy lab, much easier than the previous labs. If you are really into doing lots of calculations and a lot of lab experiments then this class might be for you. I don’t think it is for me, I am not really a math person. But I do like some of the labs we get to do and the hands-on projects that are fun.”