In a frictionless roller coaster, what happens to energy as it moves from top to bottom?

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Multiple Choice

In a frictionless roller coaster, what happens to energy as it moves from top to bottom?

In a frictionless roller coaster, energy is conserved. At the top, the car has gravitational potential energy. As it descends, gravity does work and converts that potential energy into kinetic energy. Since there’s no friction to turn energy into heat, no energy is lost—the total mechanical energy (kinetic plus potential) stays the same. So the kinetic energy increases while the potential energy decreases by the same amount, keeping the total energy constant. By the bottom, most of the energy is in motion (kinetic), which is why the speed is greatest there.

In a frictionless roller coaster, energy is conserved. At the top, the car has gravitational potential energy. As it descends, gravity does work and converts that potential energy into kinetic energy. Since there’s no friction to turn energy into heat, no energy is lost—the total mechanical energy (kinetic plus potential) stays the same. So the kinetic energy increases while the potential energy decreases by the same amount, keeping the total energy constant. By the bottom, most of the energy is in motion (kinetic), which is why the speed is greatest there.

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