When riding in the bumper cars, you may have noticed that people who weigh less tend to get pushed around more than people who weigh more. Something that is small, such as a pebble, is much easier to pick up and throw than something that is large and heavy, such as a boulder. You already know this law and practice it in your everyday life.

Newton’s Second Law: The greater the mass of an object, the harder it is to change its speed. This is because your body’s inertia wants it to keep traveling in the direction it was moving with the car even though your bumper car has now suddenly stopped. When you are riding in a bumper car and end up in a collision with another bumper car, you feel a jolt. If the ball is set in motion, it will keep traveling in a straight path because, again, that is what it ‘wants’ to do.Īn object in motion will not stop, slow down, or change its direction unless an outside force acts on it (such as gravity, friction, and air resistance). Newton found that if a ball is sitting on a table, it will stay sitting there because that is what it ‘wants’ to do. This is because all objects have inertia – the property of matter that resists changes to the object’s motion. Newton’s First Law: Every object in motion continues in motion and every object at rest continues to be at rest unless an outside force acts upon it. Roller Coaster: Putting It All Together Bumper Cars: Newton’s Three Laws of Motionīumper cars are a great place to see Sir Isaac Newton’s three laws of motion in action. Free Fall: Potential Energy, Kinetic Energy, and Gravity Bumper Cars: Newton’s Three Laws of Motion

We’ll take a look at four of the most common types of rides to see how the forces, energy types, and laws of physics are at work in amusement parks. Amusement parks are thrilling places to spend the long days of summer, but did you know that these parks are also huge physics classrooms?Īll of the rides are built with the laws of physics in mind, and it is playing with these laws that makes these rides so fun and scary.

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