Student Exploration: Roller Coaster Physics | Download Free PDF ... - Free Printable

Let’s go step by step through the Gizmo Warm-up questions to make sure we understand what’s happening and why.

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Question 1:
> Press Play (▶) to roll the 35-gram toy car down the track. Does the car break the egg?
Default settings: Hill 1 = 70 cm, Hill 2 = 0 cm, Hill 3 = 0 cm, car mass = 35 g

We’re told in the image that the answer is No. Let’s think why:

- The car starts at 70 cm high → it has some gravitational potential energy.
- As it rolls down, that energy turns into kinetic energy (motion).
- But with only 35 grams of mass and starting from 70 cm, it doesn’t gain enough speed or momentum to break the egg.
→ So, No, it does not break the egg.

✔ Confirmed.

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Question 2:
> Click Reset (↺). Set Hill 1 to 80 cm, and click Play. Does the car break the egg?

Now we increased the height of the first hill to 80 cm — same 35g car.

Higher hill → more potential energy → more kinetic energy at bottom → faster speed → more momentum.

In the image, the answer is yes.

That makes sense — increasing height gives the car more energy, so now it can break the egg.

✔ Confirmed.

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Question 3:
> Click Reset. Lower Hill 1 back to 70 cm and select the 50-gram toy car. Click Play. Does the 50-gram car break the egg?

Back to 70 cm height, but now heavier car (50g instead of 35g).

Even though height is same, mass is bigger → more momentum (since momentum = mass × velocity).

Heavier object moving at same speed has more “oomph” — so even if speed is similar, the extra mass helps break the egg.

Image says yes — which matches our reasoning.

✔ Confirmed.

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Question 4:
> What factors seem to determine whether the car will break the egg?

From above:

- When we increased height (Q2), car broke egg → height matters.
- When we increased mass (Q3), car broke egg → mass matters.
- Both affect momentum (mass × speed), and speed comes from height (via energy conversion).

So the key factor is momentum — which depends on both mass and speed (and speed depends on height).

The student wrote: *“Its momentum”* — which is correct!

✔ Confirmed.

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Final Answer:
1. No
2. yes
3. yes
4. Its momentum