Mr. Ferris and His Wheel by Kathryn Gibbs Davis

Marla Frazee describes the thrill of riding a roller coaster for the first time in this charming picture book! I think that if kids play with both the app and the toy, they get a message that 1) physics is creative and 2) physics is fun. What are the laws of Physics governing the motion of a roller coaster? How are speed and acceleration related? How does the g-force change at different points along the track? (Click on image to view at iTunes.) I have more details on this app on my post of Best Science Apps for Kids.Ĭoaster Physics. You will be thankful that the instructions are color-coded instructions, although instructions that require color coding scare the bejesus out of me! However, my kids would be fine with these instructions! The age recommendation is 9 and up but I think my 8-year-old would love this toy! I thought it would be fun to combine this app with building an actual roller coaster using K’nex Atomic Coasterand I am giving the K’nex set away!īe warned: the coaster builds over 4 feet tall, using over 850 KNEX pieces and resulting in 37+ feet of track! It’s fully operational with 2 coaster cars and a motorized chain lift.

You really get a sense for what it feels like to ride the roller coaster, minus the stomach drop, and there is a counter that runs alongside showing you first, the potential energy, as the roller coaster winds up, and then, the kinetic energy, as the roller coaster takes off. This is where the fun (and physics) begins. Once you design your roller coaster using easy-to-use tools, you get to try it out virtually. And his riders were not killed during their ride. His roller coasters would have corkscrews and tunnels with a background in outer space. My son thinks this is a gaming app (it is!).

My roller coaster accidentally went partially underground making it a lethal ride for my riders. I tried to design a roller coaster and I had trouble manipulating the track. The physics part was snuck in, which is just the way I like it. I was shocked to find that my son, then 7-years-old, not only insisted on using it upon finding it on my iPhone but was able to design the roller coaster of his dreams. When I discovered the Roller Coaster Physics app (I think someone emailed me with a code), it sounded like an app for high school students. I never got an intuitive sense of physics and my impression was that it was a formula to be memorized and calculated. I learned physics, painfully, in high school and struggled through pre-med physics in college. I wish I had been introduced to physics at a young age in a way that made it fun.

Mr. Ferris and His Wheel by Kathryn Gibbs Davis