Roller coasters

In science we are working on a roller coaster project. We had to earn "Omega Money" so we could "buy" the supplies for our project. Some of the supplies that we could buy are toliet paper rolls, empty milk cartons, empty soda bottles, large toilet paper rolls, tape and some other items that were made of cardboard. My group has a very small amount of money so we had to be sure not to waste any of it and use what we have wisely. So far me have just been using toliet paper rolls and masking tape. We have to have three hills on our roller coaster which we are having a bit of a hard time to built because you need just enough energy to get the marble up a hill and yet the structure still needs to be realistic. We have tried many different ways of making hills and some ways have suceded and some have not. I think we have learned that to get a marble up a hill, there should be a steep, longer hill coming down to it so that the marble has a lot of energy. I feel this project is fun and interesting because it shows us how cool energy and force are. Force is shown in this expreiment because the different angles and materials have different speeds and ablilitys which forces the marble to move throughout the roller coaster.. This project is a wonderful way to show force and really get you thinking. It is amazing how some of these roller coasters work and how they sometimes does not work. All in all, I have learned a lot from this project so far and it has been enjoyable.