Question

Steel Phantom is a roller coaster in Pennsylvania that, like the Desperado in Nevada, has a vertical drop of 68.6m Suppose a roller-coaster car with a mass of 1000 kg travels from the top of that drop without friction. The car then decelerates along a horizontal stretch of track. If the car travels a distance of 30m along this horizontal track before the car comes to rest, what is the magnitude of its change in mementum? Assume the car's speed at the peak of the drop is zero. What is the magnitude of the average force acting on the car during its deceleration?

Answer 1

Change in momentum = 1000 kg * 68.6 m/s

Average force = Change in momentum / Distance = 1000 kg * 68.6 m/s / 30 m = 2286.67 N