Magic Mountain Challenges Students’ Physics Abilities

You can do two things with the Buccaneer ride at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia: Ride on it, screaming as it slings you back and forth through the skies; or calculate the speed of the ship at the bottom of its swing--that is, assuming total mechanical energy is conserved.

An estimated 7,500 high school students got to do both Sunday during Physics Day, an annual event at the amusement park commemorating Albert Einstein’s birthday.

The students, hailing from as far away as Arizona, were given more than 100 physics problems to solve. Armed with accelerometers, Newton spring scales and protractors, the fledgling physicists rode roller coasters to calculate acceleration and frictional forces.

They also competed in a Physics Olympics, a competition held to gauge their physics abilities.