A roller-coaster car rolls down a frictionless track, reaching speed v0 at the bottom. If you want the car to go twice as fast at the bottom, by what factor must you increase the height of the track

Question

Dalia Daugherty

Physics

4 December, 16:15

A roller-coaster car rolls down a frictionless track, reaching speed v0 at the bottom. If you want the car to go twice as fast at the bottom, by what factor must you increase the height of the track

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Answers (1)

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Ashlynn Nunez · Answer 1

h should become four times.

Explanation:

The speed at the bottom depends only on the vertical height difference from the top ... if there is no friction ... then the path you take from top to bottom doesn't matter in any way, only the difference in height between the two

mgh at top = 1/2 mv^2 at bottom, so that v=sqrt[2gh]

You see, the final velocity, v, depends on the square root of h, so double v, quadruple h, or four times higher