How can I create a model roller coaster without using additional energy?

[DefyGravity]

I need some suggestions for how to create a model roller coaster that does not use additional energy (electricity, or touching the model in progress ) and can re-run the entire model twice.

Since creating a perpetual device with 100% efficiency is unfeasable, my instructor was generous enough to let us use addition forms of energy, as long as we do not add them when the vehicle is traveling the course

Some of my ideas:

-using a precompressed spring to increase Ek during the second lap
-creating a ferris-wheel like component that can elevate the vehicle (a magnetic ball) back to it's starting point.
-placing steel wire along the track, so the magnetic ball can follow it's path into the ferris wheel component.

Please help me, I am in 8th grade, and if I can get an A+ on this, I will be able to go to AP Biology next year. Thank you for your concerns and help.

 

[berkeman]

I need some suggestions for how to create a model roller coaster that does not use additional energy (electricity, or touching the model in progress ) and can re-run the entire model twice.

Since creating a perpetual device with 100% efficiency is unfeasable, my instructor was generous enough to let us use addition forms of energy, as long as we do not add them when the vehicle is traveling the course

Some of my ideas:

-using a precompressed spring to increase Ek during the second lap
-creating a ferris-wheel like component that can elevate the vehicle (a magnetic ball) back to it's starting point.
-placing steel wire along the track, so the magnetic ball can follow it's path into the ferris wheel component.

Please help me, I am in 8th grade, and if I can get an A+ on this, I will be able to go to AP Biology next year. Thank you for your concerns and help.

Welcome to the PF.

Can you please post the exact text of the assignment? We especially need to understand what is meant by "let us use addition forms of energy, as long as we do not add them when the vehicle is traveling the course"?

That would seem to preclude anything that interacts with the vehicle after it is released (like the ferris wheel booster thing). And does it mean that the vehicle can carry an extra energy booster on-board (like the spring you mention)?

If it's just a gravity-driven vehicle that you release from the top of the course, then it will not be able to climb back up to that top at the end of the first lap. What is meant by "two laps" of the course? Can the vehicle fall into the "course", and do two laps without having to re-climb to the launch height?

 

[DefyGravity]

http://mrwhitescience.pbworks.com/w/file/39820878/RC Rubric.xls"

That is the general rubric of how the model will be scored

 

[berkeman]

http://mrwhitescience.pbworks.com/w/file/39820878/RC Rubric.xls"

That is the general rubric of how the model will be scored

That link requires an account and password...

 

[DefyGravity]

Nevermind about that. I already have the basic foundations, but I need to know how to use a wheel bearing to create a see-saw like mechanism. Would I insert the wooden dowel through the middle and create supports so it is stable?