A lot of people look at roller coasters as an exciting example of physics, like potential energy versus kinetic energy or inertia, and rightly so. [Jared] looks at them and wonders about the controls.

Roller coasters rely on gravity to take them to the end of the track. This involves two types of energy, potential energy and kinetic energy. Potential energy is the energy an object has because ...

A roller coaster's energy is constantly changing between potential and kinetic energy. When the coaster ascends one of the smaller hills that follows the initial lift hill, its kinetic energy changes ...